How to pin FirefoxPortable (or other portable apps) to the Windows 11 task bar?

I have several portable apps, such as FirefoxPortable, installed on a USB drive, that I would like to start from the task bar. I have searched for ways to do this but none of the suggested methods works so far. E.g. dragging a shortcut onto the task bar does not work. Is there another way?

michielper said:

I have several portable apps, such as FirefoxPortable, installed on a USB drive, that I would like to start from the task bar. I have searched for ways to do this but none of the suggested methods works so far. E.g. dragging a shortcut onto the task bar does not work. Is there another way?

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Hi @michielper , welcome to the Forums!
When the app is open, right click on the Taskbar icon and choose Pin to taskbar.



Problem is, if you eject the thumb drive, the pin will become an orphaned object and possibly leave a blank or dead taskbar icon!

michielper said:

Is there another way?

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Copy the shortcut onto your desktop [assuming it is on an internal disk] then add explorer.exe to the start of its target field. Its context menu will then include Pin to taskbar.
e.g.
explorer.exe F:\Explorer++\x64\Explorer++.exe



Denis

Try3 said:

Copy the shortcut onto your desktop [assuming it is on an internal disk] then add explorer.exe to the start of its target field. Its context menu will then include Pin to taskbar.
e.g.
explorer.exe F:\Explorer++\x64\Explorer++.exe



Denis

Click to expand...

This seems to work indeed! Thanks for the tip. The target is now: C:\Windows\explorer.exe "G:\Program Files\FirefoxPortable\FirefoxPortable.exe". A little weird, I don't understand why this is necessary but it works.

michielper said:

I don't understand why this is necessary

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It's just a side-effect of how MS wrote the Taskbar code.
It's been like this since Windows 10 or possibly even earlier.
Pin to Taskbar an App, Drive, File, Folder, or Site - ElevenForumTutorials

You'd be able to pin other shortcuts using the same method - folder shortcuts used to work like this in Windows 10.
The one on the left is a shortcut to a folder. Pin to taskbar is not offered.
The one on the right is the same shortcut with explorer added to the Target field. Pin to taskbar is offered.
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I've added ExplorerPatcher to my Windows 11 so I cannot test standard Windows 11 behaviour in this respect at the moment. But here are the two equivalent Windows 11 shortcuts.
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Denis

michielper said:

I don't understand why this is necessary but it works.

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It's all about the 'path', how the OS gets to the executable file to run it. It's just like knowing which streets or roads to take to the store.