Pin an app

Step by step

1. Click the Start button! Look at the bottom of this practice computer: the dark strip there is its taskbar. In the middle of it, click the Start button (four blue squares). The main menu opens just above it. If you see two taskbars, use the one inside this page.
2. RIGHT-CLICK "Calculator". In the Start menu, put the mouse on the "Calculator" tile (a square with its name) and right-click it, which means press the RIGHT mouse button: a small menu with three lines appears.
3. Click "Pin to taskbar". In the small menu, click "Pin to taskbar" (the second line). Pinning keeps the Calculator on the taskbar, so you can open it with one click.
4. Open it from the taskbar. Look at the taskbar at the bottom of the practice computer: the Calculator now has its own icon there (a small calculator picture). Click it to open the Calculator.
5. Close this window. You are done with this window, so close it: click the ✕ button at the top right corner of the "Calculator" window (on its title bar, the strip at the top). The window disappears.
6. Right-click its icon, at the bottom. The Calculator window is closed, but its icon stayed on the taskbar: that is what pinning does. Right-click that icon (press the RIGHT mouse button on it): a small menu opens above it.
7. Click "Unpin from taskbar". In the small menu, click "Unpin from taskbar". The Calculator icon leaves the taskbar, and the app itself is still in the Start menu.

These steps are written for SafePC, a pretend Windows-style computer in your web browser. On your own computer, the buttons and menus may look a little different, but the idea is the same.

More lessons in The taskbar

• Close from the taskbar
• Close an app with Task Manager
• Show the desktop in one click
• Task view