Author Topic: pin a document to start menu (Read 33718 times)

techidave · « **on:** November 10, 2010, 01:44 PM »

I have been trying various ways to pin or place a document or even the shortcut to the document on my start menu. this is one that I use almost every day and looking for a way. I have googled, search these forums to no avail.

Is it possible to do this in XP? Maybe with a coding snack?

dave

Deozaan · « **Reply #1 on:** November 10, 2010, 02:41 PM »

It's been a while since I used XP, but you can't just right-click the file and select Pin to Start Menu? Come to think of it, I think you could only do that if it showed up in your recently used list or was already in the start menu.

Can you create a shortcut to your start menu location and drag shortcuts to documents onto the shortcut to the start menu?

MilesAhead · « **Reply #2 on:** November 10, 2010, 02:50 PM »

I think even in old versions of Windows if you drag a file to the Start Menu icon on the Taskbar, you get a shortcut in the Start Menu popup list. It may fall off after awhile. I'm not sure if it's permanent or MRU or even MFU. A lot of Windows stuff is frequency rather than recency. Which is the impetus for most of my utilities it seems.

Also in XP I believe you could make a shortcut to the document on the desktop. Drag that to the Quick Launch Bar. Then delete the desktop shortcut. One click on the Quick Launch icon would bring it up.

techidave · « **Reply #3 on:** November 10, 2010, 02:57 PM »

Right clikc and pin to start menu is not an option for me. It wasn't in my recently used list but it is now and still doesn't show up. I have tried to drag it to the start menu and it doesn't work either even if it is a shortcut.

What i found on google were the same suggestions that you have given. I know I have done this before and I think I just dragged it there but doesn't work now.

techidave · « **Reply #4 on:** November 10, 2010, 03:09 PM »

Also in XP I believe you could make a shortcut to the document on the desktop. Drag that to the Quick Launch Bar. Then delete the desktop shortcut. One click on the Quick Launch icon would bring it up.

-MilesAhead (November 10, 2010, 02:50 PM)

Tried that Miles as that was one of the suggestions from Google. It didn't work either.

techidave · « **Reply #5 on:** November 10, 2010, 03:11 PM »

You know, I just happened to think

Maybe it is because I have mulitple monitors and some software like Z-Bar and Monitor Switch installed?

Deozaan · « **Reply #6 on:** November 10, 2010, 03:15 PM »

You need to enable the option to rearrange start menu by drag and drop (or whatever it's called) if it's not already enabled. That's hidden somewhere in the options you get to from right-clicking the task bar.

techidave · « **Reply #7 on:** November 10, 2010, 03:16 PM »

Drag and drop are enabled.

techidave · « **Reply #8 on:** November 10, 2010, 03:19 PM »

I just tried disabling it and re-enabling it but that didn't work either.

Maybe I am just going to have to live without it.

app103 · « **Reply #9 on:** November 10, 2010, 03:20 PM »

The start menu is 2 folders, one for you and one for all users. They are combined by Windows.

In your documents and settings folder, in the folder with your name, there is a Start Menu folder.

Open that and paste a shortcut to whatever you want in there and it will appear in your start menu.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #10 on:** November 10, 2010, 03:56 PM »

Pin document to start menu in XP? ...I thought that was a Vista/7 only option...Guess it's been awhile since I used XP much.

Anyhow, the pin to start menu rules require that the item being pinned is (machine local and) an .exe/.msc/etc.. So if you want to pin something else you need to trick Windows into it. Start with an .exe target (that's on LM) to get the shortcut pinned, then edit the shortcut to point to (where/) what you really want. I've done this on Win7 to pin some apps that are in a network share to the start menu here at the office.

Deozaan · « **Reply #11 on:** November 10, 2010, 04:02 PM »

Something that would be useful is something that adds to the context Menu

Send To -> Start Menu (create Shortcut) would be awesome in XP.

app103 · « **Reply #12 on:** November 10, 2010, 04:07 PM »

Pin document to start menu in XP? ...I thought that was a Vista/7 only option...Guess it's been awhile since I used XP much.

Anyhow, the pin to start menu rules require that the item being pinned is (machine local and) an .exe/.msc/etc.. So if you want to pin something else you need to trick Windows into it. Start with an .exe target (that's on LM) to get the shortcut pinned, then edit the shortcut to point to (where/) what you really want. I've done this on Win7 to pin some apps that are in a network share to the start menu here at the office.
-Stoic Joker (November 10, 2010, 03:56 PM)

Nonsense! You can put a shortcut to any file type there. You can even make folders and drop the shortcuts in to sort them how you like.

Don't work with the start menu directly...open the folder for it in Explorer:

Screenshot - 11_10_2010 , 5_00_03 PM.png

pin a document to start menu

techidave · « **Reply #13 on:** November 10, 2010, 05:10 PM »

Oops, I found them when I goto Start>all programs> and at the very top just under windows update. But I would like them on the start menu without going this deep.

just on a hunch i have disabled all my multi monitor software but without success.

dave

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #14 on:** November 10, 2010, 06:23 PM »

Pin document to start menu in XP? ...I thought that was a Vista/7 only option...Guess it's been awhile since I used XP much.

Anyhow, the pin to start menu rules require that the item being pinned is (machine local and) an .exe/.msc/etc.. So if you want to pin something else you need to trick Windows into it. Start with an .exe target (that's on LM) to get the shortcut pinned, then edit the shortcut to point to (where/) what you really want. I've done this on Win7 to pin some apps that are in a network share to the start menu here at the office.
-Stoic Joker (November 10, 2010, 03:56 PM)

Nonsense! You can put a shortcut to any file type there. You can even make folders and drop the shortcuts in to sort them how you like.
-app103 (November 10, 2010, 04:07 PM)

Ya know I did add a disclaimer that stipulated I was working it from the Vista/7 angle - which do impose the limits I'd mentioned for pinning an item to the (first level) Start Panel.

But you are correct for XP (I fired up a virtual copy in the lab to be sure I wasn't nutz) you can pin anything to the Start Panel - I even got a document (not a short cut to it) to stick in there. So Techidave should be safe once he turns off the customization-ware.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #15 on:** November 10, 2010, 06:28 PM »

Right clikc and pin to start menu is not an option for me. It wasn't in my recently used list but it is now and still doesn't show up. I have tried to drag it to the start menu and it doesn't work either even if it is a shortcut.

What i found on google were the same suggestions that you have given. I know I have done this before and I think I just dragged it there but doesn't work now.
-techidave (November 10, 2010, 02:57 PM)

Perhaps it was only programs but I seem to remember dragging shortcuts onto the Start Menu Icon as far back as Win98. If your data file opens the program by file type association then create the batch file
StartyMyDoc.cmd

in it put
@echo off
start mydoc.doc

or whatever the name of the document is.
Drag a shortcut to the .cmd file onto quick launch. If that doesn't work, I give up.

app103 · « **Reply #16 on:** November 10, 2010, 06:49 PM »

I am not sure what kind of document type you want a shortcut to, but I am running XP here and this is before and after and I used the way I already explained 2 times before:

I stuck shortcuts to mp3, pdf, txt, url, avi, jpg, eps files in that start menu folder in Explorer:

Before:
Screenshot - 11_10_2010 , 7_32_07 PM.png

Screenshot - 11_10_2010 , 7_32_07 PM.png

After:

Screenshot - 11_10_2010 , 7_43_13 PM.png

Then I even made a folder and dragged all those new shortcuts into it, in Explorer, and got a nice little submenu:
Screenshot - 11_10_2010 , 7_45_41 PM.png

Just try it in Explorer. It could solve all your problems very easily without having to change any software you are running.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #17 on:** November 10, 2010, 07:45 PM »

Ah! Picture painting thousand words...

But...

app103 · « **Reply #18 on:** November 10, 2010, 07:51 PM »

And THAT is one of the reasons why I LOVE the classic start menu, which you could always change to, so you can have a lot more control over what is displayed there.

But before you do, please try the Explorer trick I explained and see what happens. If the shortcuts won't show or they won't show where you want, they surely will as soon as you switch to classic, without you having to paste the shortcuts again.

techidave · « **Reply #19 on:** November 10, 2010, 08:58 PM »

First of all, I do have the classic menu as shown in Joker's post. I have tried using just explorer and not just the drag and drop on to the start menu. I have tried a shortcut and also the actual 40 kb xls file. sorry I really thought that I had said it was an excel file in the original post but after re-reading I see that i didn't. My bad!

Since this is on my work computer, i will try uninstalling and not just disabling the multi monitor and taskbar software to see what happens (tomorrow).

app103 · « **Reply #20 on:** November 10, 2010, 09:37 PM »

First of all, I do have the classic menu as shown in Joker's post.
-techidave (November 10, 2010, 08:58 PM)

What he has showing in his post is NOT the classic start menu.

What I have showing is.

Right click the start button and select Properties.
Select the bottom option.
Click Apply and OK.
Check to see if what you stick in the start menu folder shows on the start menu.

gdv22 · « **Reply #21 on:** November 11, 2010, 01:19 AM »

If you want to simply add a shortcut to the Start Menu, my preferred method is the same as app103's, even though I'm using the standard WinXP Start Menu, not the Classic Start Menu.

But I think you wanted to pin a document (or a shortcut to a document) to the Start Menu (i.e., so it would appear like "We Need ShortCut Here.txt" does in Stoic Joker's image, assuming you're using the standard WinXP Start Menu, not the Classic Start Menu).

While the standard Right-Click context menu generally only displays the "Pin to Start menu" for programs and shortcuts to programs, I think you'll find that Ctrl+Shift+Right-Click will reveal the "Pin to Start menu" option in the Right-Click context menu with any file or shortcut (e.g., executables, documents, zips, images, mp3s, etc., etc., etc.). (You will also have to Ctrl+Shift+Right-Click to Unpin from the Start menu.) This works on my XP Pro system with the standard XP Start Menu (i.e., the one in Stoic Joker's image), but I'm not sure about the Classic Start Menu (when I tried switching to the Classic Start Menu just now, I didn't see the Pin to Start menu option at all).

Let us know if that works!

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #22 on:** November 11, 2010, 06:46 AM »

First of all, I do have the classic menu as shown in Joker's post.
-techidave (November 10, 2010, 08:58 PM)

What he has showing in his post is NOT the classic start menu.

What I have showing is.
-app103 (November 10, 2010, 09:37 PM)

Correct! ...That's why I kept referring (in earlier posts) to the item in the screen shot as the Start Panel which it what it has been called since 2001 when XP was released. I actual hated the thing when it first came out (minimalist that I are...). But I finally decided to give it a fair shot (sometime in 2k3), and now can't function without it.

techidave · « **Reply #23 on:** November 11, 2010, 12:21 PM »

Sorry my bad again. I have the default start menu as shown in Joker's image above and not the classic one. I was confused yesterday.

I did try the Ctrl+Shift+Right-Click as mentioned by gdv22 but there was no pin to showing up. But it does work with a .exe file.

i will uninstall my multiple monitors/ taskbars software and see what that does.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #24 on:** November 11, 2010, 12:35 PM »

There was a hotkey involved with one version (XP/Vista/7) of the SP, but I don't recall which (or when). Ctrl+ Right click drag sounds right ... I'm just not sure if it's Ctrl on release/drop or before the click/drag. Could also try both with shift - I'm fairly sure it was only one key. But the target must be on a local drive...Unless you want to try tricking it by modifing the shortcut after it's pinned.