Windows 7: Prevent unpinning apps - taskbar context menu customization?

Greetings,



Is there anyway to remove the unpin/pin context menus - while retaining the items currently on there. It can be a pain when I have folder shortcuts already setup but I accidentally unpin them when trying to close an unrelated app. In other words - I have the taskbar the way I like it and want to prevent further changes (like how rocketdock can lock icons and settings).

Is there a way to accomplish this in Windows 7?

Have to say I'm having some difficulty imagining how you're 'accidentally' unpinning when closing another app but I'm afraid the answer is no (or at least as far as I'm aware).

Well, have an opened application next to a pinned (but not open) one. Right click the open one, then the not opened one and read the last item in the context menu. The pinned one will have unpin, and since it isn't open there isn't any time to undo it if you do click unpin. The open one will have "close" of course.

Most of the time I've caught it when I've clicked wrong - it's the time's I haven't that's annoying.

Either way I can't say I'm surprised though, thanks anyway.

Go to the Group Policy Editor- Click on Start button, then type "gpedit.msc" without quotes. In the window that opens up, navigate to the following node in the left pane:

User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar

In the right pane locate the policy setting called "Do not allow pinning items in Jump Lists" and ENABLE the policy. This prevent users from pinning files, folders, Web sites, or other items to their Jump Lists in the Start menu and taskbar. Items that are already pinned to their Jump Lists continue to show, but users cannot unpin the existing items from their Jump Lists.

Also, under the same node, locate the policy called "Do not allow pinning programs to the taskbar" and enable it. With this,users cannot change the programs that are currently pinned to the taskbar. Programs that are already pinned to the taskbar continue to show, but users cannot unpin existing programs or pin new programs.

Edit: There seems to be a bug here which allows unpinning despite enabling the policy. So after following the steps above, see this MS support page.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/981177

That caught my eye while looking through, however I've applied it and while it does indeed prevent pinning, unpinning still happens like normal. Strange

Indeed. Thats a bug and MS has already released a hotfix for it.

You can still unpin a program from the taskbar unexpectedly when you enable the "Do not allow pinning programs to the Taskbar" Group Policy on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2