How to pin drives to the navigation pane in File Explorer on Windows 10

Dec 12, 2018
Comment

The navigation pane in File Explorer comes with some items pinned to it by default. One of those items is This PC and if you expand it, you can access your Windows’ libraries as well as the drives on your disk. If you need to pin additional items to the navigation pane, you can pin them under ‘Quick Access’. You can pin both drives and folders here. If you’d rather pin drives to the navigation pane so that they’re pinned as their own item instead of a sub-item under This PC or Quick Access, you can. To do that, you need a batch script.

This script was written by Superuser user JosefZ and it can pin the C and D drives to the navigation pane in File Explorer. The script can be modified to pin other drives as well.

Back up Registry key

Before you use this script, you need to back up a registry key. Open the Windows registry, and navigate to the following location.

Right-click the NewStartPanel key, and export it to a safe location. This is a precaution that you should definitely take.

Pin drive to navigation pane

Open Notepad and paste the following in it. Save the file with any name of your choice and with the BAT file extension.

Once you save the file, right-click it and run it with admin rights. The above script will add the D drive to the navigation pane in File Explorer.

To add the C drive, you need to modify the above script. Specifically, you need to modify lines 3-6 and change them to the following.

Compare the two sets of lines and you will be able to modify the script so that it can add any drive of your choice.

To remove a drive, open Command Prompt with admin rights and CD to the folder where you’ve saved the scripts. Run the following command but replace ‘name-of-script.bat’ with the name you saved the script with.

You will have to run this for all drives that you’ve pinned to the navigation pane. If running the command results in problems, restore the registry key that you backed up.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

How To Pin This PC (Computer Icon) To Taskbar In Windows 10/8/7

Last Updated on April 23, 2019 by admin 14 Comments

Windows Explorer has been renamed to File Explorer in Windows 10/8, and the My Computer is now called This PC. In Windows 10, the File Explorer opens to the new Quick Access by default instead of This PC.

Although you can configure the File Explorer in Windows 10 to open to This PC instead of Quick Access, many users don’t want to change it as Quick Access shows recently opened files and frequently opened folders.

In Windows 10, when you right-click on the File Explorer icon on the taskbar, it will open the Quick Access. If you would like to open This PC quickly, you can consider pinning This PC to the taskbar in Windows 10.

Pin This PC to Windows 10 taskbar

Step 1: In the Start/taskbar search field, type This PC and then hit the Enter key to see This PC in search results.

Step 2: Right-click on This PC entry and then click the Pin to the taskbar option to pin This PC icon to the taskbar.

You can now click on the newly added This PC icon on the taskbar to quickly open This PC.

Pin computer icon to Windows 7 taskbar

One of the best features of Windows 7 is the new taskbar. It lets you pin programs to the taskbar, similar to pinning programs to Start menu in the earlier versions of the Windows operating system.

When you pin a favorite program to the taskbar, it can be easily accessed with a single click. If you want to have a clutter-free desktop, you might want to pin Computer and Recycle Bin icons to the Taskbar for the easy access.

But pinning the Computer icon to the taskbar is not possible by default. Generally, Windows 7 displays Pin to taskbar option when you right-click on a program, but you can’t see Pin to the taskbar option for Computer.

In order to pin Computer to Windows 7 taskbar, you need to do a small workaround. Here is how to:

1. First, right-click on Windows 7 desktop > New > Shortcut.

2. Enter the below address location of item filed, and click the Next button.

%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe shell:MyComputerFolder

3. In the next window, type in a name for the shortcut (Ex: My Computer). Click on the Finish button to see a new shortcut icon on the desktop.

4. You can now drag and drop your new shortcut icon on to the taskbar to pin it. But if you want to decorate the new shortcut with the default Computer icon, you need to follow the next two steps.

5. Right-click on the shortcut icon (new icon), go to Properties. Click on change icon button and enter the below address in the file location box.

%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll

6. Now select the Computer icon and click the Apply button. Pin the icon to the taskbar either by right-clicking and selecting “Pin to Taskbar” option or by dragging the icon to the taskbar.

How to get Windows Explorer to Pin to Taskbar

When I right click on Windows Explorer to get it pinned and there is no entry items present forr pinning it either to the TaskBar OR the StartMenu like most other applications in the my system.

I’ve been able to do it on my system at my office, so I know it can be done. I had it pinned on the system now having the problem, that is until Microsoft pushed out the latest patch set on Friday 21-Sept-12 which wacked my entire task bar, Sidebar, and scrogged many other aspects of my system.

I certainly hope that they actually did finally fix the security leak of IE forever with this patch as they promised and not simply Fubar-ing many systems to give the appearance of actually plugging the leak with more than a finger! (but that too might depend on which finger gets referenced as I can think of which one my system appears to have gotten).

That being said, let’s begin by skipping the usual diatribe of suggestions from neophytes who simply parrot what is on so many other boards, blogs, and forums with what I can recall attempting to remedy my situation:

• I have tried to drag «Windows Explorer» and shortcut links to Windows Explorer to the taskbar to get it pinned. No go!
• I have tried all the Registry suggestions to pin Windows Explorer to the task bar. No Go!
• I have searched the Registry for any key with PIN or NOPIN in their name and found nothing. Although the search for PIN did reveal several keys and values with pin embedded in them (i.e. «striping», «Mapining», Snapin«, «OfficeVBAHelpIntlHiddenIntl_1033″, etc. ad nausea to the tune of 3114 hits).

But know that the FUBAR has occurred, does anyone have better ideas on how to correct the issue with Windows Explorer so I can once again pin it to my TaskBar, and possibly my StartMenu too?

Pin a folder to Navigation Pane in Windows Explorer

I want to create a folder and pin it to the Navigation Pane in Windows Explorer , but I am unsure how to do this.

I’d like to create something similar to a DropBox or OneDrive folder.

Something like this —

I’ve looked at the Manipulating the Windows 7 Explorer navigation pane question but I don’t think its what I want. The application will run on machines with Windows 7 to Windows 10. Is it possible to do this on all these OS?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

3 Answers 3

This is partially documented in this document : Integrate a Cloud Storage Provider although the title is misleading; it works for regular folders. Also, it works fine on Windows 7, Windows 8.x, and 10.

So, here is the content of a .BAT file (using the standard reg.exe tool, but you can easily replace this by C# code) that can create a folder like OneDrive. First you must create a Guid by any means, replace the «MyExt» name by your folder’s display name, the «c:\temp\myext» path by any physical path, and then run this .bat file.

Note this will register the folder for the current user (so you don’t need special rights in the registry), but if you want to register it for the whole machine, you’ll have to replace HKCU by HKLM (and you’ll need proper rights then).

Also note I’ve chosen a default icon in imageres.dll but you can use anything else of course.

This is how it looks like on Windows 10:

To remove the folder from the pane, create another .BAT file with the following content:

Windows Explorer will not pin to the taskbar.

original title: Windows Explorer will not pin to the taskbar. I’ve tried all these solutions.

Windows Explorer will not pin to the taskbar (or start menu either). The only right-click option is «Close Window». Dragging a folder to the taskbar only shows a red circle with a line through it. Other programs pin just fine.

I have been searching all day and tried these solutions so far:

• Registry search for «NoPinningToTaskbar» and «NoPinningToDestination» show no results.
• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile IsShortcut registry entry exists
• «Store and display recently opened programs in the Start menu» option is checked
• %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations and
  %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations folders have been cleared
• Replaced explorer.exe with one from a working Win7 PC
• This is a new install, so there is no system restore point to use
• Both explorer.exe and Programs/Accessories/Windows Explorer are missing the «Pin to Taskbar» option.
• This update http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2607576 was already installed
• I am not using CCleaner

What else is there to try? Has anoyone found a real solution to this problem?

Replies (13) 

* Please try a lower page number.

* Please enter only numbers.

* Please try a lower page number.

* Please enter only numbers.

Just to clear up a point,

Pressing the windows logo key and typing your search is using windows explorer,

Pinning windows explorer to the taskbar,

Are you referring to the yellow folder which really only opens the win-7 libraries page ?

Windows explorer is a vague term there are many listings on the start menu which can be referred to as windows explorer,

One would be the search box at the bottom of the start menu,

Right click the start button and select properties,

Most all of these listings are considered windows explorer, to me anyway ?

Then you have the Bing desktop search feature which is another story all together 😉

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

Paste this into the start menu search box,

You should then be able to either right click and select Open file location or point at send to and click on (desktop) create shortcut,

And drag the desktop shortcut to your taskbar.

You need to create a shortcut before pin to taskbar is available.

If you made changes to your machine system restore to an earlier time might cure the issue faster.

3 people found this reply helpful

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

Hadn’t thought of that one yet. Unfortunately, it still doesn’t work. I get the same red circle with a line through it («No» symbol — there has to be a real name for it).

Right-clicking the shortcut doesn’t give me any pinning options, start menu nor taskbar.

This is a new install, so there is no system restore point to use.

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

The red circle with the slash mark will usually disappear when you get to the taskbar/ destination.

Click the start button and click on All programs,

Click on the accessories folder,

Is the yellow folder (window explorer) listed here ?

If so right click it and select Pin to taskbar.

If it’s not listed in the accessories folder,

Drag the desktop shortcut to the start menu button, (do not release yet)

Wait a second and the start menu will popup, (do not release yet)

Then drag it to the accessories folder, (do not release yet) it will expand drag it down until you see a horizontal line between listings and then release/ drop.

Then right click it and select Pin to taskbar 🙂

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

While I appreciate your effort, I think we’re on different pages. If you read my original post, you’ll notice that I’ve already answered your questions.

I am an IT professional. Please assume I know things like dragging and dropping, what the start button is, etc. I’m sorry if I come across as a little grumpy, but I have literaly been working on this all day. I have been editing registry entries, booting to Mini XP with Hiren’s boot disk to replace explorer.exe, and trying to actually get some work done at the same time.

I don’t doubt your ablities, I just don’t think you are familiar with this particular issue — it’s widespread, just not enough for everyone to know about (probably because most users don’t even know you can pin anything to the taskbar, so the issue is never raised). The solutions I’ve listed above were found scattered across different forums, each one worked for some people and not for others. My intention here was to start a thread for those, like me, who have tried ALL of these solutions and are still having this issue.

For those who have come to this forum in search of an answer, you can try any one of the bullet points listed above. Some have had success with them. Sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanent (so far). The most popular fix, by far, was to delete all files in «%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations» and reboot.