Windows 7 Taskbar Items Pinner is a free software that allows you to pin just about anything (individual folders, files, or URLs) to the Windows 7 taskbar.
Now you may be wondering why you need this, since you can already pin items to the Windows 7 taskbar simply by dragging them over; however, the truth is that Windows 7 only allows for pinning applications on the taskbar directly, not individual folders or files. Once pinned, Windows 7 allows you to access files or folders from their application context menu ’jumplist’ only; this program, in contrast, will let you pin and access any item straight on the taskbar (see image below for an illustration).
Here’s a list of PROS and CONS:
PROS:
- Simple app, does what it sets out to do
- Can pin webpages: simply paste the URL in the path field.
- Portable; unzip and run
CONS:
- A single criticism: when pinning an item, Windows 7 Taskbar Items Pinner will require that you identify an icon file as well that it would use in the taskbar (which can be quite annoying). This left me wondering why it didn’t simply grab the icon already used by the file/folder/app that is being pinned. Strange. For the screenshot above, I used BeCyIconGrabber to grab the Excel file icon from the Excel executable.
The verdict: I like this one for the simple reason that it lets me pin my favorite folders straight on the taskbar rather than in a jumplist.
Compatibility: Windows 7.
Go to program home page to download the latest version (approx 54K).
The beta version grabs the icon automatically!