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Castiellm's avatar
Castiellm
Iron Contributor
Aug 30, 2025

How to move items from the taskbar to the desktop in Windows 11

Hello, I would like to move pinned program icons (such as .exe files or other shortcuts) from the taskbar to the desktop, but dragging them directly does not work. Is there a way to accomplish this?

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  • ShahabM's avatar
    ShahabM
    MCT
    Aug 30, 2025

    Basically whatever you have pinned or have open and showing in taskbar is a Program/Software running on your Windows 11. 

    To have same program show up on your Desktop, you need to create a shortcut to those programs on desktop. You can not drag and drop from taskbar to desktop. 

     

    The steps will be:

    1. Right Click on the icon of program on taskbar, and then again Right click on the program name that appears among many options you see, then click on "Properties" ex: if the program is MS Word, then right clicking the icon, will show "Word" and then again right clicking on "Word" will display properties.

    2. Copy the Target Path

    3. Right click anywhere on empty space on Desktop and click on "New" and then click on "Shortcut" and then in "Create Shortcut" screen enter the copied Target Path and click on "Next"

    4. Give a name to your Short and click on "Finish"

    5. Now from desktop you can launch the same program that you have pinned or have open in taskbar.

    Please let me know if this helped. 

    Thanks

     

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