The taskbar in Windows 7 offers a feature to pin programs to it so that they are always accessible from there. It uses the same principle that shortcuts use with the difference that the programs are added to the taskbar instead and that they might offer additional functionality depending on the developer’s support of additional taskbar features.
It is however not possible to add anything but an executable file to the Windows 7 Taskbar. Jason some time ago showed how to add folders and other special system tools to the taskbar by adding a new toolbar to it. But that meant that those icons where shown in the toolbar which could be moved around a bit but would still be separate from the taskbar itself.
There is thankfully a much easier way to pin any file or folder to the Windows Taskbar. Here is how you do it:
Create a new text document on your computer desktop or any other location and rename it completely so that it becomes an executable file, for instance downloads.exe instead of downloads.txt. Drag the new file to the Windows 7 Taskbar to pin it there. This is just used as a dummy file that is needed to place the icon on the taskbar.
Now navigate to the file or folder that you want to pin to the taskbar in Windows 7. Hold down the shift button, right-click the folder and select to copy the path of the file or folder. This will copy the path to the Windows Clipboard.
Now right-click the pinned taskbar item and right-click again the name that is shown in the jumplist. Select Properties from that menu. Locate the Target form field in the Shortcut tab. Replace the existing path with the path that has been copied to the Windows Clipboard. You can simply select the old path, right click it and select to paste so that it gets replaced.
You are done but you can click on the Change Icon button in the same menu to replace the icon with another one that is more appropriate.
A click on OK will change the path and the file or folder can from then on be opened from the Windows 7 Taskbar.
This method makes it possible to add any file or folder to the Windows 7 Taskbar. The original file can be deleted in the end as it is no longer needed.
