Pin multiple Windows Explorer icons to Taskbar

I have Windows 7 Ultimate x64. I wrote this post on Techspot originally and decided I should also ask it here, hopefully I can get this solved, it's driving me crazy.

Before anyone says this is impossible, it's not. I had it set up like this before and I reinstalled Windows, now I can't get it back to the way it was. I know it was a pain the first time around too, though.

Ok, basically, I want a taskbar icon that, when clicked, opens up one of my harddrives. When I click this icon, I want the window to open using that icon, not as a separate item in the taskbar. For example, see attached images. The first image is what it should do when I click to open it, the second is what it should not do (the little mp3 player icon is the E: drive shortcut, opening the window changes the icon to a harddrive).

Now, if I change the target of the shortcut to this:

C:\Windows\explorer.exe /e, /root,E:

Then it works like it should, however, there's a problem: I want more than one shortcut. The other shortcut is to an FTP site. I actually thought to save the original shortcut from before I reinstalled Windows, and the target for it is this:

C:\Windows\explorer.exe /e, /root,ftp://username:password@mysite.com/

(with the actual site and credentials obviously being changed here) This also works as it should, opening the window using the icon. Here's the problem though, both work when they're the only ones on the taskbar, but if I put them both on the taskbar at the same time, then whichever one I added first takes precedence. By that I mean that if I add the shortcut to the E: drive, then add the shortcut to the FTP site, clicking the E: drive shortcut opens the window using the correct icon, but clicking the FTP site shortcut opens the window using the E: drive icon.

I know this may sound like a trivial little thing, but it's possible, I know it is, and it's just how I want it set up.

Can anyone help me out, please! I read somewhere that I could make a copy of explorer.exe, rename it explorer2.exe and point one of the shortcuts to it, and that would solve the problem. Well I did that, and it didn't fix it, it just reversed it, now clicking on the E: shortcut opens a window using the FTP shortcut. It doesn't make sense, and I had it working before, I just don't remember what I did.

Carolyn said:

right click on the drive then select Create shortcut

a shortcut will appear on your desktop

drag the shortcut to your taskbar

right click the explorer icon on the taskbar, you will see the shortcut that you want there

you can then delete the shortcut from your desktop

That doesn't work, you can't pin a folder (or drive) shortcut directly to the taskbar, you have to trick it into thinking it's a program by using the explorer.exe /e, /root params.

I don't want the drive shortcut to be pinned in the jumplist of another shortcut, I want it to be it's own shortcut. In the attached images I uploaded, you can see the little mp3 player icon. When I click that, it should open up the E: drive. I don't want to have to right click an icon then click the drive shortcut, that's not how I had it before.

Maybe I'm not being clear. I'm not having any problems getting the drive / FTP shortcuts added to the taskbar, that's not the issue. The issue is that when I click the shortcut for the E: drive, a window should open up using that shortcut's icon, and when I click the shortcut for the FTP site, then a window should open using that shortcut's icon. That is the desired behavior. What's happening is that when I click the E: drive shortcut, it opens properly using it's own icon, but clicking the FTP site shortcut opens a window that also uses the E: drive shortcut's icon. Both shortcuts are opening using a single icon, not each using their own icon like they should be doing.

I believe what's causing the issue is that both shortcuts point to explorer.exe, they just have different values for the parameters. This makes Windows think that they're the same program and it tries to make the best use of the icons. Changing the target of the E: drive shortcut to simply "E:\" makes it so that when I click on that shortcut, it opens a completely new item in the taskbar, the original icon remains the same. Clicking that icon over and over again just opens up more and more taskbar items.

Ok, here goes:

Taskbar grouping is set to never combine.

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Desired outcome:

E:\ drive shortcut
FTP site shortcut

Two separate shortcuts.

Click E:\ drive shortcut, new window opens using the E:\ drive shortcut icon as its taskbar item, NOT creating a new taskbar item (refer to attached screenshots in the first post)

Click FTP site shortcut, new window opens using the FTP site shortcut icon as its taskbar item, NOT creating a new taskbar item.

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Current outcome:

E:\ drive shortcut
FTP site shortcut

Click E:\ drive shortcut, new window opens using the E:\ drive shortcut icon as its taskbar item.
OR
Click E:\ drive shortcut, new window opens creating a new taskbar item (refer to attached screenshots in the first post)

Click FTP site shortcut, new window opens using the E:\ drive shortcut icon as its taskbar item. This should open a new window using the FTP site shortcut icon as it's taskbar item.

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When I set this up the first time I did not use an external program or tool, I used what Windows had built in. I do not remember what I did since it was over a year ago, but obviously it is possible otherwise I wouldn't have been able to do it on my previous installation.

What I mean by "using [x] icon as its taskbar item" is, you know when you click a taskbar icon and the window opens up, the window uses that icon as its taskbar item, meaning clicking that icon will minimize the window, clicking it again will restore it, mousing over will show a preview of the window. What I want is for each of these shortcuts to use their own icons as the window's taskbar item (meaning the E: drive window will use the E: drive shortcut icon and the FTP site window will use the FTP site shortcut icon.) What I mean by "not creating a new taskbar item" is, if I set the E: drive shortcut's target to just "E:\", then clicking it will create a new taskbar item, the window that is opened will not use the existing icon as it's taskbar item. Please refer to the attached screenshots in the first post for an example of what I mean. The first screenshot is the desired behavior, I clicked the E: drive shortcut (mp3 player icon) and the window that opened used that shortcut's icon. The second screenshot shows the undesired behavior, clicking the E: drive shortcut (again, mp3 player icon) created a new taskbar item for the window that opened, and you can see the original E: drive shortcut icon.

Please, I'm being as absolutely descriptive as possible, I just really really want to get this solved. Like I said, I had it working before, so I know it's possible.

No, because that would make it so that if I was in the C: drive and I double clicked to open the Users folder, that folder would open in a new window. This is not the desired functionality I'm looking for. I thoroughly explained exactly the desired functionality I'm looking for in my previous post.