Windows 7 - Taskbar - Pin or Unpin Program Links - winapi

Question

As in title, is there any Win32 API to do that?

Answer 1

Don't do this.
I'm 99% sure there isn't an official API for it, for exactly the same reason that there wasn't programmatic access to the old Start Menu's pin list.
In short, most users don't want programs putting junk in their favorites, quick launch, taskbar, etc. so Windows doesn't support you doing as such.

Answer 2

I'm trying to implement a VirtuaWin (opensource virtual desktop software) plugin that allows me to pin different buttons to different virtual desktops. Completely valid reason to use this.
Found the way to pin/unpin it already:
Following code snippet is taken from Chromium shortcut.cc file, nearly unchanged, see also the ShellExecute function at the MSDN
bool TaskbarPinShortcutLink(const wchar_t* shortcut) {
int result = reinterpret_cast<int>(ShellExecute(NULL, L"taskbarpin", shortcut,
NULL, NULL, 0));
return result > 32;
}
bool TaskbarUnpinShortcutLink(const wchar_t* shortcut) {
int result = reinterpret_cast<int>(ShellExecute(NULL, L"taskbarunpin",
shortcut, NULL, NULL, 0));
return result > 32;
}
// Copyright (c) 2012 The Chromium Authors. All rights reserved.
// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
// found in the LICENSE file.
Seems pretty straightforward if you know the shortcut. For me though this is not sufficient, I also need to iterate over existing buttons and unpin and repin them on different desktops.

Answer 3

In the comments of a Code Project article it says all you have to do is create a symbolic link in the folder "C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar".
But it appears to generally be unsociable practice, as the other comments here have noted.

Answer 4

You can pin/unpin apps via Windows Shell verbs:
http://blogs.technet.com/deploymentguys/archive/2009/04/08/pin-items-to-the-start-menu-or-windows-7-taskbar-via-script.aspx
For API, there is a script-friendly COM library for working with the Shell:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb776890%28VS.85%29.aspx
Here is an example written in JScript:
// Warning: untested and probably needs correction
var appFolder = "FOLDER CONTAINING THE APP/SHORTCUT";
var appToPin = "FILENAME OF APP/SHORTCUT";
var shell = new ActiveXObject("Shell.Application");
var folder = shell.NameSpace(appFolder);
var folderItem = folder.ParseName(appToPin);
var itemVerbs = folderItem.Verbs;
for(var i = 0; i < itemVerbs.Count; i++)
{
// You have to find the verb by name,
// so if you want to support multiple cultures,
// you have to match against the verb text for each culture.
if(itemVerbs[i].name.Replace(/&/, "") == "Pin to Start Menu")
{
itemVerbs[i].DoIt();
}
}

Answer 5

Just to put some links on the info as microsoft now offer an official documentation on "Taskbar Extensions" :
A small set of applications are pinned
by default for new installations.
Other than these, only the user can
pin further applications; programmatic
pinning by an application is not
permitted.
So Kevin Montrose answer is the correct one : DON'T.

Answer 6

It works, but not for all OS, e.g. Windows 10:
[DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
private static extern IntPtr LoadLibrary(string dllName);
[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
static extern int LoadString(IntPtr hInstance, uint uID, StringBuilder lpBuffer, int nBufferMax);
private static void PinUnpinTaskBar(string filePath, bool pin)
{
if (!File.Exists(filePath))
throw new FileNotFoundException(filePath + " not exists!");
int MAX_PATH = 255;
var actionIndex = pin ? 5386 : 5387; // 5386 is the DLL index for"Pin to Tas&kbar", ref. http://www.win7dll.info/shell32_dll.html
StringBuilder szPinToStartLocalized = new StringBuilder(MAX_PATH);
IntPtr hShell32 = LoadLibrary("Shell32.dll");
LoadString(hShell32, (uint)actionIndex, szPinToStartLocalized, MAX_PATH);
string localizedVerb = szPinToStartLocalized.ToString();
// create the shell application object
dynamic shellApplication = Activator.CreateInstance(Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Shell.Application"));
string path = Path.GetDirectoryName(filePath);
string fileName = Path.GetFileName(filePath);
dynamic directory = shellApplication.NameSpace(path);
dynamic link = directory.ParseName(fileName);
dynamic verbs = link.Verbs();
for (int i = 0; i < verbs.Count(); i++)
{
dynamic verb = verbs.Item(i);
if ((pin && verb.Name.Equals(localizedVerb)) || (!pin && verb.Name.Contains(localizedVerb)))
{
verb.DoIt();
break;
}
}
}

Answer 7

I found there is no offical API to do that, but someone has do it through VBScript.
http://blog.ananthonline.net/?p=37
Thanks.

Answer 8

this folder contains shortcut of pinned application
C:\Users\Your-User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar