Windows – Pin a Specific PDF to the Start Menu

pdfstart-menuwindows 10

I'm using windows 10, and I wondered if there was some way to pin an actual pdf file to the start menu. I know I can pin the pdf reader, but to me the point of the start menu is ease of access, and if I have to point and click to open frequently used pdf files than I feel a little disappointed.

When I try to right click the pdf file, there is no 'pin to start' option from the menu, so I guess that's not a good sign. However, it's 2017, people can split the atom, surely there is a way to pin a specific pdf file to the start menu.

Best Answer

You can right-click any PDF file that you choose and select Send to > Desktop (create shortcut). You may also prefer to rename your shortcut to something more unique, or at the very least, remove the visible - Shortcut suffix.

After that, you can copy that shortcut to one of the following locations:

Only your Start Menu - %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

All users Start Menu - %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

Taking it a step further, you can potentially right-click that shortcut within the alphabetical All Apps list and select Pin to Start.

Related Solutions

Windows – How to pin “Programs and Features” and “Device Manager” to Start Menu

If you want to pin pages from the modern Settings app to the start menu, that's quite easy: Just right click on an entry on the left hand side and click "Pin to start":

With "Programs and features" it's almost as easy as with the modern settings app: Search for it in the desktop control panel, right-click it and click "Pin to start":

With the device manager it's a bit more complicated. First, you have to find the file . C:\Windows\System32\devmgmt.msc. Right-click on it and choose "Pin to start". This will create a start menu tile with the ugly name "devmgmt". To change this, right-click on the tile, choose "Open file path" and change the shortcut's name to something nicer (e.g. "Device manager").

It's important that (in the control panel) "Pin to start" or "Create shortcut" will only appear, if the desired setting appears in a big font (like "Programme und Features" [german for "Programs and features] and "Geräte-Manager" [german for "Device manager"] on the screenshots do).

Windows 10 Start Menu – Can’t Have Multiple Shortcuts with the Same Target

As of Win 10 (1903) Aug 2019, it seems that the Start Menu will now allow duplicate shortcuts to the same .exe as long as the arguments are different. For this to work though, the "duplicate" shortcuts needs to be created by any method OTHER THAN making a copy of the already existing shortcut in the Start Menu and modifying it.

So, a shortcut created with the target as

C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /K "cd C:\"

will open up the command prompt at C:\, and a shortcut created with the target as

C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /K "cd C:\Users\"

will open up the command prompt at C:\Users\. Both shortcuts will be shown on the Start Menu, in addition to the default Command Prompt shortcut, even if they have the same name.

I was also able to create a duplicate shortcut to cmd.exe that will show up in the Start Menu and function identically by using ' as an argument. Target:

C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe '

Which I can then modify to launch cmd with different properties (admin/compatability etc.). This may not be suitable for other executables.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Windows – How to pin “Programs and Features” and “Device Manager” to Start Menu

Windows 10 Start Menu – Can’t Have Multiple Shortcuts with the Same Target

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