Add “Pin to Start Menu” (or Unpin) to Folders Context Menu in Windows

Windows operating system such as Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 has a Start menu pin list which appears on top of the Start menu (or in the case of Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, Start screen) when clicked. The pin list allows users to put shortcuts to programs and other items that users for easy and fast access.

The process to place an item in the Start menu pin list is called ‘pin’. To pin a shortcut to a program (.exe or .com) in the list, users can right-click on the item and click “Pin to Start Menu”, “Pin to Start” or simply drag and drop any items including folders to the Start button or the Start menu or the Start screen.

So if you need to place a folder to the pin list on top of the Start menu, simply drag and drop the folder to the Start button or Start menu. However, if you prefer to right click on the right and select the option “Pin to Start Menu”, the following registry hack will add “Pin to Start Menu” menu item to the special right click context menu for folder.

1. Click Start button, then click on Run (for Windows XP) or Start Search (for Windows Vista and Windows 7) and type RegEdit.exe in the text box, then press Enter or click OK.
2. Navigate to the following registry key:

   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
3. Create a new key named {a2a9545d-a0c2-42b4-9708-a0b2badd77c8} (including the bracket). To create a new sub-key, right click on ContextMenuHandlers, then select New -> Key.

   

4. Exit from Registry Editor.

To use “Pin to the Start Menu” context menu item to pin a folder, press and hold down the SHIFT key (not applicable for Windows 8 or later), and then right-click a folder. The “Pin to Start Menu” entry will appear in the Context Menu.

To undo and remove the Pin to Start Menu contextual handler, simply delete the key {a2a9545d-a0c2-42b4-9708-a0b2badd77c8} in the above registry branch.

After adding an item to Start menu pin list, it can be removed from the pin list by right-clicking on it, and then clicking “Unpin from Start Menu” or “Remove from This List” option. The order of the items in this list can be arranged by dragging and dropping them to the preferred position.