Cannot pin a folder (its shortcut) to the taskbar

markaz · 26 Jan 2015

I have followed the tutorial(s) here and elsewhere on pinning a folder to the taskbar in Window 7. It's straight forward enough, but if I attempt to drag and drop the folder's shortcut from the Desktop to the Taskbar I get the universal symbol for "cannot do this". Even when I right click the shortcut I am not given the option to pin it to the taskbar. Before anyone asks, I am adding "explorer" to the beginning of target path in Properties.Any help would be appreciated.

Pyprohly · 26 Jan 2015

Hello Markaz,

Use the fully qualified path of Explorer.exe instead. E.g.

(option one) - Taskbar - Pin or Unpin a Folder

Code:

C:\Windows\explorer.exe "C:\Folder\to\pin"

whs · 26 Jan 2015

Put the shortcut on the desktop and then drag it over the explorer icon in the taskbar. It will be pinned there.

ShoTTaS · 27 Jan 2015

in Search bar type gpedit.msc press Enter. Local Group Policy Editor will come up.
Then under User Configuration > Administrative Template > Start Menu and Taskbar: on the left side under Setting:
Right click on Remove pinned programs from the taskbar choose Edit. If it is "Enabled" change it to "Disabled" then click Apply>Ok. To make that the configuration is applied restart your computer.

After the reboot, check if you can now pin programs to your taskbar.

Regards

ShoTTaS :)

markaz · 27 Jan 2015

Thank you for the replies. With regard to each suggestion:

1. Pyprohly - I entered the fully qualified path (both with a space between the quotation marks and without a space) and have the same result. Pin to Taskbar does not appear in Context Menu or when I drag it to the Taskbar I am not allowed to drop it.

2. whs - First I do not have the Windows Explorer icon on the Taskbar and if I did wouldn't I have to open Windows Explorer from its icon and then find my folder and click on it? I want the folder directly on the Taskbar.

3. ShoTTaS - When I search gpedit.msc and hit "Enter", the Group Policy Editor does not open.

FYI: I created a new text document on the desktop and renamed it to an .EXE. I ignored the popup warning about changing file types so I effectively had an EXE on the desktop. When I right click the icon the Context Menu has the option of pinning it to the Taskbar. I can also drag the icon to the Taskbar and it states "Pin to Taskbar". Regardless of the method used to pin it to the taskbar the icon DOES NOT appear on the taskbar.

Pyprohly · 27 Jan 2015

markaz said:

Regardless of the method used to pin it to the taskbar the icon DOES NOT appear on the taskbar.

Something is wrong, Markaz. Are you saying that you cannot pin applications or Shortcuts to the taskbar--the only items that can be pinned?

My only guess is that you may have missing or damaged registry values for .lnk files. I recommend you restore default file type associations.

markaz said:

3. ShoTTaS - When I search gpedit.msc and hit "Enter", the Group Policy Editor does not open.

You've another issue coming.

markaz · 27 Jan 2015

Pyprohly said:

markaz said:

Regardless of the method used to pin it to the taskbar the icon DOES NOT appear on the taskbar.

Something is wrong, Markaz. Are you saying that you cannot pin applications or Shortcuts to the taskbar--the only items that can be pinned?

My only guess is that you may have missing or damaged registry values for .lnk files. I recommend you restore default file type associations.

markaz said:

3. ShoTTaS - When I search gpedit.msc and hit "Enter", the Group Policy Editor does not open.

You've another issue coming.

Agreed...something is wrong. I have two apps (a mail client and a password manager) currently pinned to the taskbar. If I go to those exe's in their install folders I now do not have the option of pinning either of them (Context menu or drag and drop). So somewhere from the time I pinned them until now something's gotten corrupted.

You mentioned a possible issue with .lnk. I used Brink's registry tweak to get rid of shortcut arrows, but that was over 4 1/2 years ago. I highly doubt that registry tweak has a thing to do with it. I was investigating this potential issue as well and in doing so came across something that I'm not certain is an issue or not. In the registry, should there be the following: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer. If so, the Explorer key is missing.

I'll investigate the Group Policy Editor issue and if I don't find a 'fix' to that then I'll post another thread. Maybe related...who knows at this point.

Thanks for the help. Greatly appreciated.

whs · 27 Jan 2015

2. whs - First I do not have the Windows Explorer icon on the Taskbar and if I did wouldn't I have to open Windows Explorer from its icon and then find my folder and click on it? I want the folder directly on the Taskbar.

I really don't see where the difficulty is. In my picture I mad a shortcut to the desktop of 'FF Output' and dragged it over the explorer icon. Then I deleted the shortcut on the desktop. Now all I need to do is right click on the explorer icon and it is right there.

Cannot pin a folder (its shortcut) to the taskbar-2015-01-27_1201.png

The other option would be a toolbar. There you can pin shortcuts, folders, shortcuts within folders and folders within folders. A very flexible facility where you can have hundreds of entries that would otherwise never fit on the taskbar.

Toolbars - How to Use in Windows 7 and Vista

ShoTTaS · 27 Jan 2015

Well, i guess the next thing to do is the repair install of your OS, you've got a lot of issue on your computer. (i can't find the link in tutorials)
But let me find a way on how to get your gpedit.msc back.

markaz · 28 Jan 2015

ShoTTaS said:

Well, i guess the next thing to do is the repair install of your OS, you've got a lot of issue on your computer. (i can't find the link in tutorials)
But let me find a way on how to get your gpedit.msc back.

Whenever I read "repair install" as a fix to anything I really exhaust all efforts to do anything but that. In checking I went to Local Group Policy - Reset to Default just to get info. On that page is the following:

I have Windows 7 Home Premium. Would this explain not being able to open gpedit.msc?
___________________________________________________

whs - In your original post you said "..and then drag it over the explorer icon in the taskbar". In your last post you said "...and dragged it over the explorer icon." This is a pic of my taskbar and do not see that I have an icon for explorer.

___________________________________________________

FYI: Here's what's in the Taskbar folder located at \Users\ME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar\.

Interestingly, the folder shortcut I've been trying to add to the taskbar already IS in the Taskbar folder from previous attempts along with Internet Explorer, their icons are just not being displayed on the taskbar. So I can add things to the Taskbar, it's just a matter of making the icons display!