Computer - Pin to Taskbar

How to Pin Computer to the Windows 7 Taskbar​

   Information

This will show you how to pin Computer to the Windows 7 taskbar as a separate icon instead of it being pinned as a Jump list item in the default pinned Window Explorer taskbar icon.

   Note

When you have both the default Windows Explorer icon to the left and this Computer icon to the right of it, then each time you click on the Computer icon on the taskbar it will open another separate new window of Computer. Clicking on the Windows Explorer icon will only open the one window instance.

   Warning

To avoid issues with other pinned "explorer" type shortcuts from displaying their opened windows in the thumbnail previews of whatever pinned "explorer" type shortcut is on the farthest left of the taskbar, be sure that the default pinned Windows Explorer taskbar icon is dragged to the left of this pinned Computer icon on the taskbar, and that any other pinned "explorer" type icon is dragged to the right of this Computer icon.

EXAMPLE: Computer Unpinned and Pinned from the Taskbar

EXAMPLE: Computer window

OPTION ONE

To Download the "Computer" Shortcut

1. If you have not already, then uncheck the default Computer shortcut from the Desktop Icon Settings window.

2. Click on the Download button below to download the Computer.zip file below.

Download


3. Click on Save, and save the .zip file to the desktop.

4. Open the .zip file and extract the Computer shortcut to the desktop.

5. Right click on the Computer shortcut and click on Properties, General tab, and the Unblock button. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: If the unblock button is not there, then the shortcut is already set to be unblocked. Continue on to step 6.

6. Drag the Computer shortcut onto the taskbar until you see the Pin to Taskbar pop-up and drop it. (see screenshot below)

7. Computer is now pinned to the taskbar. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: If you ever wish to remove the pinned Computer icon from the taskbar, right click on it and click on Unpin this program from the Taskbar.

8. When done, you can delete the downloaded Computer shortcut and .zip files on the desktop if you like.

OPTION TWO

To Manually Create the "Computer" Shortcut

1. If you have not already, then uncheck the default Computer shortcut from the Desktop Icon Settings window.

2. Right click on a empty space on the desktop and click on New and Shortcut.

3. Copy and past either location below into the location area and click on the Next button. (see screenshot below)
explorer.exe ,0

OR

%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe shell:MyComputerFolder

OR

%windir%\explorer.exe shell:MyComputerFolder

OR

%windir%\explorer.exe /e,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

4. For the name, type Computer and click on the Finish button. (see screenshot below)

5. Right click on the new Computer shortcut on the desktop and click on Properties.

6. Under the Shortcut tab, click on the Change Icon button. (see screenshot below)

7. In the "Look for icons..." line, copy and paste the path below and press enter. (see screenshot below)
%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll

8. Select the Computer icon and click on OK. (see screenshot above)

9. Click on OK. (see screenshot below)

10. Drag the new Computer shortcut onto the taskbar until you see the Pin to Taskbar pop-up and drop it. (see screenshot below)

11. Computer is now pinned to the taskbar. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: If you ever wish to remove the pinned Computer icon from the taskbar, right click on it and click on Unpin this program from the Taskbar.

12. You can now delete the Computer shortcut on the desktop.
That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Pin or Unpin a Program to the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Enable or Disable Windows 7 Taskbar Pinned Programs
• How to Add or Remove a Default Desktop Icon in Windows 7
• How to Pin the Recycle Bin to the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Pin the Control Panel to the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Change the Windows 7 Pinned Windows Explorer Taskbar Icon Open To Target
• How to Pin Your User Files Folder to the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Add or Remove Computer from the Windows 7 Navigation Pane
• How to Add or Remove "Computer" from Desktop Context Menu

 

[Hitcher]

Still no joy.

I've tried the download and making my own using all three different shortcuts and they all fail to open a new folder as soon as they're pinned to the taskbar, if I double click them from the desktop they're fine though.

 

[Brink]

Hitcher,

Strange, I just can't reproduce what you are seeing.

As a test, you might see how it behaves in a new administrator account to see if it may be something in that user account.

 

[jmf]

Thanks!

Hey, I walked through your manual instructions and they worked perfectly.

Thanks so much for posting this!

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome JMF, and welcome to Seven Forums.

 

[Brink]

Still no joy.

I've tried the download and making my own using all three different shortcuts and they all fail to open a new folder as soon as they're pinned to the taskbar, if I double click them from the desktop they're fine though.

Hitcher,

I ran across something that may help with this. Make sure that you still have the default Windows Explorer shortcut pinned to the taskbar, but make sure that it is positioned (dragged) to the left of this pinned Computer shortcut. Afterwards you should be able have a new Computer window open each time you click on it.

 

[Hitcher]

Wow, it worked.

Many thanks for still thinking about me.

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Hitcher. I'm glad that got it sorted for you.

 

[Shugo]

I have 2 hard drives C:\ and G:\, I would like to pin G:\ to the taskbar.
How would you go about pinning it?

 

[Brink]

Hello Shugo,

A hard drive is treated the same as a folder in Windows 7, so you can pin it to the taskbar just like you would a folder in the tutorial below, but starting at step 4. You would use G: as the path.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9305-taskbar-pin-unpin-folder.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[hsrstud]

When I tried to do this on my computer (x64), the My Computer taskbar icon works for a while when I boot up my machine, but then it always unexpectedly crashes (Windows Explorer has stopped working...) and won't open again. When I looked in the event log, I had the following message. Does anyone know what might be causing this? I have tried disabling all of the software I can think of on my computer and disabled all the nonstandard services, but the problem persists.

Faulting application name: explorer.exe, version: 6.1.7600.16450, time stamp: 0x4aebab8d
Faulting module name: comctl32.dll, version: 6.10.7600.16385, time stamp: 0x4a5bde67
Exception code: 0xc000041d
Fault offset: 0x0000000000079ddc
Faulting process id: 0x1bcc
Faulting application start time: 0x01caa3b83aae9e0c
Faulting application path: C:\Windows\explorer.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft.windows.common-controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.7600.16385_none_fa645303170382f6\comctl32.dll
Report Id: 78702073-0fab-11df-82f1-001fc6ecd6c7

 

[Brink]

Hello Hsrstud,

This is a unrelated Windows Explorer error that just happens to affect this since this is what the shortcut opens. You might consider doing a repair install to fix this. Afterwards, you should be able to use the shortcut as well.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[hsrstud]

Thank you for this information Shawn.

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Hrstud.

 

[claudiusss]

it works for me,win7 64bit,thnx!!!!!

 

[kookster]

is there a way to make it when you click on it the folder that opens doesnt overide the icon. In other words once I click it I would be able to click it again to open another folder. Possible?

 

[Brink]

Hello Kookster,

Yes. Having this Computer shortcut pinned (dragged) to the right of the default pinned Windows Explorer icon on the taskbar will allow you to open a new Computer window for each time you click on it.

 

[kookster]

Ok i got it to work without any other folder being pinned to the taskbar, using Jump List Launcher. All you have to do is:

1. Open up "JumplistLauncher.exe"
2. Drag and drop "Computer.lnk" that you downloaded from this tutorial into it
3. Select the check box next to "explorer"
4. Click "update Jumplist", this is like the save button
5. Right click on "JumplistLauncher.exe" select "create shortcut"
6. Right click on your new shortcut, select properties
7. Select "Change icon..."
8. Browse for your desired icon
Default icon directory:
%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll
9. Select your icon, select "OK", select "OK"
10. Pin your new shortcut to the taskbar.

Brink you could add this to other methods if you like?

 

[KarlLabrada]

uh-oh

Ok this works for me as described, but not like it used to...

I updated from the RC version of Win 7 to Win7 Pro x64 this morning, and I used this tute as I have before, and it works in that it launches a win explorer window to Computer rather than Librarys, which is good, but when I have used it before it has changed the way it launches (bare with me, this might get a little confusing)

I have a few of things pinned to my quick launch, but the two that concern this are Firefox and Explorer. Both of these programs launch and change the icon for the program into the title for it on the task bar (as is expected). The problem being that if I have explorer on the left, and Firefox on the right, when I launch a few windows of explorer my Firefox shortcut moves along the task bar and I have to go searching for it.
for example,
[Explorer window][Explorer window][Explorer window][Firefox shortcut]

Previously when using this tute it caused explorer to launch but left the shortcut where it was.
for example,
[Explorer shortcut][Firefox shortcut][Explorer window][Explorer window]

If I reverse the order of the shortcuts then I still have the same problem, but with the explorer shortcut moving rather than the Firefox shortcut moving.

Any idea how I can get it like the second example again?

 

[Brink]

Hello Karl,

Have you considered using the Always combine, hide labels option for the tasbar to have the buttons grouped instead? This way you would avoid them moving around on you.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[kookster]

@KarlLabrada I know exactly what you mean!!! That's why i did what I did in the post above you. You should give it a try.
To sum it up it creates a shortcut to whatever folder you want (Computer, C:, Documents, Whatever). When you click on it will open that folder furthest to the right on your taskbar, or right next to any other folders you have opened already.
If you give it a try, let me know what you think and how it works.