If you have been using Windows 11 for some time, you have probably noticed how its much harder to customize things such as the taskbar and start menu compared to how it was with Windows 10. For example, we can’t even move the taskbar to the side or top of the screen.
Another thing that you can’t do in Windows 11 is pin your files to the start menu. Sure, you can pin shortcuts which is fine for applications, but nobody wants to make a shortcut to a Word document or other file just to pin it to the start menu. In this article, we will be showing you how to create a right click pin to start option to pin files and folders to your start menu.
To accomplish this, we will be making a simple change to the Windows registry. The registry is a hierarchical database that stores configuration settings and options for Windows as well as for installed applications and hardware devices. Before making any registry changes, it’s always a good idea to make a backup of the registry or create a system restore point.
Many times, you will need to manually make these registry changes but if you click the link here, you can actually download the files required to make these changes for you.
Once you download the zip file and extract it, you will have two registry files. One is used to add the pin to start option, and the other is used to remove it if you change your mind.
If you were to open these files in Notepad or some other app, you would see that they are quite simple.
PinToStart.reg file contents.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\PintoStartScreen]
@=”{470C0EBD-5D73-4d58-9CED-E91E22E23282}”
RemovePinToStart.reg file contents.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\PintoStartScreen]
To add these settings into the Windows registry, all you need to do is double click on the PintoStart.reg file and then click on the Run button.
Then say yes to the User Access Control prompt that will appear next.
Then you will be asked to confirm that you want to add the information to the registry and you will need to click the Yes button to continue.
Then you will be shown a confirmation dialog box, and you can simply click on the OK button.
To pin a file or folder to the start menu, all you need to do is find that file, right click on it and then click on Show more options and finally click on Pin to Start on the next menu. By the way, it is possible to bypass the Show more options menu by holding down Shift on your keyboard while right clicking. You can also change the right click menu so it works like it did in Windows 10 using this registry edit.
Once you click on Pin to Start, you can then click on the Windows start button and your file will be pinned there.
It will most likely be pinned at the end of the list, but you can then right click on it and choose Move to front or simply drag it to a new position. You can also click on Unpin from Start to remove it from the start menu.
As you can see, it’s fairly easy to create a right click pin to start option to pin files and folders to your start menu. Maybe someday in the future, this will be built into Windows so we can do this without editing the registry!
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