If you spend a lot of time on the internet, you likely visit a handful of sites regularly. Now, you could be typing in those URLs by hand or bookmarking your most-visited sites in your browser. Depending on your device’s OS, you canpin websites to your device’s shelf, dock, taskbar, or Start menu and run them like applications. That way, you don’t have to enter the link in your browser’s address bar every time you visit a web page. They keep your digital workspace looking clean and organized, helping you get more done with less effort. And if you’re showing off yournew Chromebook, you want it to look good.

No matter which browser you use, this guide shows you how to stick your links where you want them on your taskbar or start menu.

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When you pin a website on most browsers (right-click the tab, then selectPinorPin tab), the tab becomes smaller, displaying only the website icon instead of its title. The new tiny tab is then moved to the left of the tab bar and the close button disappears, preventing you from accidentally shutting it. You can swap the positions of your pinned tabs with each other, but they’re kept separate from your other open tabs. If you want to get rid of them, unpin them, and they’ll reappear as regular tabs.

you could also pin links to your home screen, taskbar, or start menu as shortcuts and run them like you would a normal application. Some browsers have built-in features that make this process easy for you. Others require a more complicated procedure involving manually creating a shortcut and tweaking its properties. Whichever browser you use, Android Police has you covered.

The Google Chrome logo against a blue and white background.

Google Chrome is one of the few browsers that gives you the option to pin websites to your taskbar or start menu. The browser only lets you pin links as shortcuts. A shortcut is a quick way to access any file on your device. Clicking the shortcut launches the file without you having to find the location.

Make a website shortcut using Chrome on a Windows PC

From here, a couple of things happen at once. First, you’ll notice a new window with your website loaded. Next, your website’s icon will be on the taskbar with your other open and pinned programs. There will also be a shortcut on your desktop. Finally, in your Start Menu, you’ll see your website near the top underRecently added.

Pin your Chrome shortcut to the taskbar

You can pin your new shortcut to the taskbar in two quick clicks.

Pin your Chrome shortcut to the Start menu

Pinning your shortcut to the Start menu is as easy as getting it to the taskbar.

Your shortcut is placed in a new group on the Start menu, but moving it around is as easy as clicking and dragging.

Google extension images in a chart

Make a website shortcut using Chrome on an Android device

Your shortcut appears on your smartphone’s home screen, where you can drag and drop it into any position you want.

Microsoft Edge uses its home-field advantage and allows you to pin your link to the taskbar or Start menu without creating a shortcut.

Apple discontinued Safari on Windows PCs in 2012. You can download the browser from third-party websites if you want it, but you won’t receive the latest updates.

Other browsers don’t have built-in buttons for creating shortcuts. In this case, you may need to create the shortcut from your home screen. You’ll need the URL of the website you want to pin and the shortcut location for your browser. When you create a shortcut, your computer stores it in a different location from the original application. What you need for this procedure is to copy the shortcut location and not the browser’s location.

Below are examples of how the shortcut locations for most browsers should look on your computer:

Google Chrome Windows 10 webpage highlighting the three-dot menu

Find the shortcut location of your browser

Create shortcuts for websites using shortcut locations

Pin shortcuts to the taskbar and start menu

Browse how you want

Every browser has upsides and downsides, but Google Chrome remains the preferred choice for many people because of its speed and user-friendly interface. Plus, Google Chrome is designed to run on Windows PCs and regularly receives updates with new features. If you’re curious about what more you can do with your Chrome browser, there are sometips and tricks for Chrome on a desktopto make browsing easier.

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Google Chrome Windows 10 More tools menu highlighting the Create shortcut option

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