How to Pin a Folder, Drive, and Library to the Start Menu in Windows 7
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By default, you can only pin programs to the Start menu in Windows 7 with the Pin to Start Menu context menu item. You could also drag a folder, drive, or library to the Start button until you see Pin to Start Menu and drop it to pin the folder, drive, or library to the Start Menu.
This will show you how to add Pin to Start Menu to the context menu of a folder, drive, or library for all users in Windows 7.
You must be logged in as an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial.
Note
From the Start menu All Programs area, you can only pin the folders you have added to All Programs and not any of the default Accessories, Administrative Tools, Maintenance, and Startup folders.
You can pin any folder, drive, or library from within Windows Explorer to the Start Menu.
EXAMPLE: "Pin to Start Menu" Enabled for Folders and Drives NOTE: You will need to press and hold Shift and right click on a folder or drive to see Pin to Start Menu.
EXAMPLE: "Pin to Start Menu" Enabled for Libraries NOTE:You will just need to right click on a library to see Pin to Start Menu.
Here's How:
1. To Enable Folder, Drive, and Library "Pin to Start Menu"
A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below.
Enable_Folder_Drive_Library_Pin_to_Start_Menu.reg
B) Go to step 3.
2. To Disable Folder, Drive, and Library "Pin to Start Menu" NOTE: This is the default setting.
A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below.
I pinned a custom library (named Downloads) to the Start Menu without downloading the registry entries found in this thread. The problem was, I was unable to unpin the item from the Start Menu. Whenever I right clicked on it, I would get two options, open or properties. I tried deleting the library. Not only did the Start Menu entry not go away, but now when I right clicked and selected properties, I was informed the item did not exist. Still no option to unpin though, even for a non-existent item. So I went googling. With the enable registry keys provided here the issue was corrected. So this is more of an FYI, if this is released without those registry keys, then the custom libraries will need to be prevented from being pinned to the Start Menu.
System Manufacturer/Model Number Dell Latitude D620 OS Windows 7 CPU Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8GHz Memory 4GB DDR2 PC6400 Graphics Card Integrated Intel Sound Card Integrated AC 97'
Thanks. Well as to that, I didn't know about these registry entries, so I went looking for a solution myself. I'm a tinkerer at heart, so I tried a number of ways to get it to pin in place. The method that worked was to create a custom library, use the context menu to create a desktop shortcut, then pin the shortcut to the start menu. Then I deleted the shortcut and everything worked as intended. At least for 2 days until I decided I did not really want a downloads link on my start menu after all. What I really wanted was the ability to add it to the list of libraries on the right side of the menu. Haven't quite figured that one out yet
After a little more poking around, this works without the custom library. To pin any library to your start menu, you can simply create a desktop shortcut, then drag that to the start menu to pin it. You just can't unpin it.
Last edited by Brink; 25 Feb 2012 at 01:39 AM..
Reason: merged
System Manufacturer/Model Number Dell Latitude D620 OS Windows 7 CPU Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8GHz Memory 4GB DDR2 PC6400 Graphics Card Integrated Intel Sound Card Integrated AC 97'
Using this tutorial, you should be able to just right click on any library in the Libray folder and click on Pin to Start Menu to do so instead, and Unpin from Start Menu to remove it.
Yes, thank you that is true, but this will add the Pin to Start Menu option to the folder or library context menu so that you can also have it as an option to use to pin a folder or library to the Start Menu as well. Either way is good though.
Going through the GUIDs in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID keys, most of them will have a description that will help ID what the GUID is for. From there it's just a matter of looking for that GUID in the usual context menu registry locations.
Pin any folder, document, shortcut to Main Start Menu
Brink: your Enable_Start_Menu_Pin_Folder enables documents or shortcuts (as well as folders) to be (Shift-rtClick) to main Start Menu. However, this will not work if shortcut points to file on another network machine (Vista & XP of course allowed this by simply dropping shortcuts into the StartMenu folder - but not on Windows 7; it must be pinned). Is the problem some arcane security setting (maybe this post holds the key Help Classic Menu - Shortcuts attributes - BIG mistake )?
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Unpin from start menu missing! 
