Tech for Luddites

While it’s pretty easy to add a bookmark to your favorite pages in your browser of choice, there may be times when you want to access certain pages even more quickly. The easiest way to do that is to simply add a link to your Windows taskbar (the black bar that by default is at the bottom of your page). Then when you click the link, it will open your default browser automatically to that page.

NOTE: While I know for sure this works in Windows 10, I’m pretty sure it also works in Windows 8/8.1 and possibly in Windows 7 as well. I just don’t have computers with those operating systems anymore to test it.

How to add a link to a web page to your taskbar

Right-click on an empty area of the taskbar over near the system icons (Wi-Fi, battery, volume, etc.)

This opens a popup menu.

Mouse over Toolbars and select Links.

This adds a new Links section to your taskbar.

In your browser’s location bar, select the URL and drag it down to the Links area.

You now have a link to that web page on your status bar. If there’s not enough room to display the bookmark, you’ll see a double arrow that you can click to show the list. You can also drag the separator lines to the left of Links to increase the width of that section.

There are a few other customizations you can make as well:

• Right-click on the word Links and select your desired options from the top section of the popup menu. For example, you can choose not to display the word “Links” to save space.
• Right-click on the link itself to rename it.

Also, note that the Links toolbar is not just for web page links. You can also add direct links to specific folders and files on your computer by dragging them from Windows Explorer to that area.

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