Windows 7 Tutorial

Remove Explorer from the Windows 7 taskbar + how to view folder content

By default, Windows 7 comes with a Windows Explorer shortcut pinned to the taskbar, much like older versions of Microsoft's operating system had an Explorer icon inside the Quick Launch area. As you may know from earlier tutorials, you can very easily pin or unpin programs from the taskbar; in this tutorial, you will learn how to unpin Windows Explorer from the taskbar, and how to access it when it is no longer visible in that area of the screen. Depending on your screen resolution and the number of applications you'd like visible at all times in the taskbar, this gives you room for one more icon!

 

Unpin and temporarily delete Windows Explorer from the taskbar

First, let's remove the Windows Explorer icon from the taskbar:

Tip: to restore Windows Explorer to the taskbar later on, just launch it with one of the techniques described below, and right-click on its icon (taskbar button) just as we showed you above, and this time pick "Pin this program to taskbar" from the jump list:

Restore Explorer on the Windows 7 taskbar

How to launch Windows Explorer without the taskbar

Since Windows Explorer is an application tightly integrated with Windows 7, there are quite a few built-in ways to launch it; of the methods mentioned below, pick your favorite or the one best suited for a particular situation - all achieve the same effect:

These are just some of the most common ways to launch Windows Explorer without using its taskbar icon, but there are quite a few others, done either from within some applications, using the command line, etc.

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