Internet Explorer 9 Lets You Pin Website Shortcuts to the Taskbar in Windows 7

Internet Explorer 9 lets you Pin websites directly to the Taskbar so that you can launch your favorite websites in a single click. To Pin a website to the taskbar, click and drag the Website’s favicon shown in the left of the Address bar onto the Taskbar.

This feature was made possible by introducing new file type [Pinned Site Shortcut] with ".website" extension, which is evident from the Pinned item’s properties.

Pinned Site Shortcut [.website] File Type Association

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.website]
@="Microsoft.Website"
"PerceivedType"="System"
"Content Type"="application/x-mswebsite"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft.Website]
@="Pinned Site Shortcut"
"NeverShowExt"=""
"EditFlags"=dword:00000002
"IsShortcut"=""
"FriendlyTypeName"="@C:\\Windows\\System32\\ieframe.dll,-10576"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft.Website\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\Windows\\System32\\ieframe.dll,-211"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft.Website\Shell\Open\Command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Internet Explorer\\iexplore.exe\" -w \"%l\" %*"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft.Website\ShellEx\ContextMenuHandlers\{90AA3A4E-1CBA-4233-B8BB-535773D48449}]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft.Website\ShellEx\ContextMenuHandlers\{a2a9545d-a0c2-42b4-9708-a0b2badd77c8}]



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft.Website\ShellEx\IconHandler]
@="{182C3813-DF97-40fa-9C4E-B7D3E74F00CA}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft.Website\ShellEx\PropertyHandler]
@="{182C3813-DF97-40fa-9C4E-B7D3E74F00CA}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft.Website\ShellEx\PropertySheetHandlers]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft.Website\ShellEx\PropertySheetHandlers\{182C3813-DF97-40fa-9C4E-B7D3E74F00CA}]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft.Website\ShellEx\{000214F9-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}]
@="{182C3813-DF97-40fa-9C4E-B7D3E74F00CA}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft.Website\ShellEx\{00021500-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}]
@="{182C3813-DF97-40fa-9C4E-B7D3E74F00CA}"

Note that normal URLs that you see in Favorites menu/bar can’t be Pinned, as was the case in IE8 in Windows 7. It would be nice if the "Pin" feature is added for normal Website shortcuts (.URL files) … so there is no need for a new file type ".website".


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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a consecutive ten-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the Windows Shell/Desktop Experience category, from 2003 to 2012. He loves to troubleshoot and write about Windows. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.

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