Pin Folders To Start Menu In Windows XP, Vista Or 7

Windows XP, Vista or 7 allows us to pin our most frequently used application to the Start menu by right clicking on it and selecting Pin to Start Menu. This gives us instant access to these applications. If we want any other item to pinned list, we can do so by dragging and dropping it to the Start button or the Start menu. If we want to remove these pinned item we can do so by right-clicking it and clicking Unpin from Start Menu or Remove from This List. The order of the items in this list can be arranged by dragging and dropping them to the preferred location. To add a folder to the Start Menu Pin list, you may use the drag-drop method as stated above. But we cannot pin our frequently used or favourite folders to the Start menu by right clicking on it. Here is a cool trick to pin your folders to the Start menu by right clicking on the folder and selecting Pin to Start Menu:

• Click on the Start menu button and type regedit in the Start menu search box and press Enter. For XP users select Run from the Start Menu and type regedit in the Run dialog box and press enter.

• This will open the registry editor.


• Now browse to the key
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

• Once you are there right click on the right pane and select New and then Key.

• Type in {a2a9545d-a0c2-42b4-9708-a0b2badd77c8} and press Enter.

• Once this is done, close the registry and restart your computer for the changes to take place.

Now, to pin a folder to the Start Menu, press and hold the Shift key and then right-click a folder. The Pin to Start Menu entry will appear in the context menu.

Voila! You can now pin your folders to the Start menu too!

Note: If you want to undo this trick just delete the key {a2a9545d-a0c2-42b4-9708-a0b2badd77c8} from the registry. This tip will not work if you are using the classic start menu.

Help at hand: If you don’t want to go through all the tedious work of editing the registry, download PinFolderToStartMenu.zip and run Pin.reg to automatically insert the values. To undo or delete the created key run the file UndoPin.reg.