How to Drag Files to the Taskbar to Open Them in Windows 7

by Lowell Heddings on

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always dropped files directly on the quick launch buttons to quickly and easily open them in the application the shortcut points to, but now Windows 7 doesn’t let you do that—by default, at least.

When you try and drag a file onto a taskbar button in Windows 7, you’ll be prompted to “Pin to Application”, instead of opening the file.

Pin to Notepad

If you right-click the taskbar button, you’ll see that now that file has been pinned there.

Pinned Items

What you need to do instead, is hold down the Shift key while dragging the file to the taskbar button, and it will change to “Open with Application” instead.

Open with Notepad 

It’s one of those simple tips that can seriously save you some time.

Lowell Heddings, better known online as the How-To Geek, spends all his free time bringing you fresh geekery on a daily basis. You can follow him on if you'd like.