How to Pin network programs to the Windows taskbar


Windows 7 and up comes with a great feature that allows you to pin programs to the taskbar for easy, one click access.  I keep all of my in-house programs on a server.  The problem is that Windows does not allow you to pin programs on the network.

The solution is listed in these 7 easy steps and you'll have a pinned shortcut of the network shared program.

  1. Copy the network shared .exe file to your local hard drive.  You only need the .exe as you are only going to link to it, not run it.
  2. Create a shortcut on the desktop for the local copy of the .exe file.
  3. Right click on the shortcut on the desktop and select "Pin to Taskbar"  The shortcut now shows up as pinned in the taskbar
  4. Right click on the shortcut in the taskbar and then Right click on the program name.  This is an important step!  Do NOT Left click as that will run the exe, which might not load and could cause problems.
  5. From the popup menu, select "Properties'
  6. Change the Target in the pinned shortcut properties from the local drive to the network drive.  Same with the Start in
  7. Delete the shortcut from the desktop.

Article ID: 1144, Created On: 2/23/2019, Modified: 2/23/2019

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