How-To: Pin a Document File or Folder (Rather Than Just a Program) to the Start Menu or Taskbar

Windows 7 has a really awesome feature that allows you to pin programs to your Start Menu or Taskbar. In addition, you can pin files to the jump list for that program, which lets you right-click on the program (on the Taskbar) or click the jump list arrow (on the Start Menu) to access frequently used files for that particular program. Unfortunately, you cannot pin documents or other non-program files to the Start Menu or Taskbar directly like you used to be able to do in older versions of Windows (e.g., by using the Quick Launch toolbar). Fortunately, there is still a way to make a one-click shortcut to open a specified file or folder.

1. Create a temporary shortcut to the program that you want to open the file with
   • If you find the program's executable, just hold Alt and drag the executable into empty space to easily create a shortcut
2. Right-click on the shortcut and select Properties
3. In the Target text box, append a space and then the file location after the executable
   • Note: If you have spaces in any path, make sure you surround the path in double quotes
   • Example Document File: “C:\Program Files\Program ABC\ABC.exe” “C:\Documents\mydocument.doc”
   • Example Folder: “C:\Windows\Explorer.exe” “C:\Users\Public\Desktop”
4. Change the shortcut's icon or any other properties
5. Click OK to save the changes to the shortcut
6. Rename the shortcut appropriately
7. Right-click on the shortcut and choose to Pin to Start Menu or Pin to Taskbar
   • Alternately, you can drag-and-drop the shortcut onto the Start Menu or Taskbar
8. That's it → it's now safe to delete the temporary shortcut