Occasionally, I write about a few technical hacks. This article is about the usage of “Pin” in windows.

There are two pin options:

1. Pin to taskbar
2. Pin to this list

1. Pin to taskbar

The taskbar helps users to navigate to multiple programs installed on their computer. The “big four” programs can be pinned to the taskbar – (a) folder (b) Word (c) Excel and (d) browser.

Well, technically you can pin any of your favorite programs or applications to the taskbar – for example Calculator, Calendar…just about anything.

Benefit? Easy navigation.

If you want to open an Excel spreadsheet, you don’t have to click the “Start” button or look for the Excel icon (shortcut) on the desktop, or search for the app in the search box. You can simply look at the taskbar.

2. Pin to this list

After you pin a program to the taskbar, you can then pin important files to that.

For example, after you pin Excel (the program) to the taskbar, you can then pin the most frequently used Excel spreadsheets to that.

Benefit?

Let’s say you have a template for an “investment check-list” Excel sheet. You can simply pin it to the Excel icon on the taskbar.

Here is the typical process to open the file:

In File Explorer, click the hard disk drive, then “Folder” -> then “Sub-folder” (if any) – > then filename (e.g., Investment checklist template Excel sheet).

Here is the simple process when using the “Pin to taskbar” option:

Simply “left click” the Excel icon that is pinned to the taskbar, then click the “investment checklist” spreadsheet.

You can follow a similar process for important Word documents, webpages, presentations, etc.