Downloader: Four ways to add fast, easy access to files and folders to your Windows 7 taskbar

Friday, July 16, 2010

Four ways to add fast, easy access to files and folders to your Windows 7 taskbar

The improved taskbar -- or Superbar, as it's really called now -- in Windows 7 offers loads of features which make getting at the files and folders you use frequently easier and faster. The four options I'll cover here don't require any additional software. They're all possible using features built right in to your OS, you just might not have realized it yet!

Pin 'em to your Explorer icon (pictured above)
The most obvious solution, and the one you're most likely to have tried already. The Explorer icon sits on the Superbar by default, so every fresh Windows 7 desktop should have it. Pinning a folder is as simple as it gets: find a folder you want to add to the Explorer Jump List, click on it and hold your mouse button down, and drag it to the Explorer taskbar icon.

There's another way to add items, too. Folders you use frequently automatically appear on the Jump List. Right-click the Explorer icon to display it, and then click the thumbtack icon to pin anything you'd like to show up at the list.