Pinning PuTTY to the Start Menu
20 January 2014

Most software that the Window OS has installed can easily be pinned to the Windows 8 start menu. However, not all software out there is installed onto your system via an installer. Some software is just an executable file or folder. This is fine but how do you pin it to the Windows 8 start menu? Easy, just follow my tip.

Pinning via a Shortcut

Let say you have downloaded software like PuTTY and you would like to use it often. In the past you may have kept it on your desktop. You still can, however, the start menu is kind of the new desktop when it comes to shortcuts.

The first thing to do is put the unzipped executable software into a tidy place within your system. I normally manually add software of this sort to program files. Once you have added the executable program to a tidy place head over to the Windows desktop. Right click the desktop's main area and select 'add a new shortcut'. The shortcut is only temporary so don't worry about adding clutter. Step through the new shortcut wizard. Once the shortcut has been created, simply right click it and select the option 'Pin to Start'.

Tidying up the Shortcut

If you have followed the steps in the last section of this post, you will find that the software linked to the shortcut is now pinned to your Windows start menu. To tidy up, all you need to do is drag the shortcut over to the recycle bin. After emptying the recycle bin, you will find that the executable software continues to be pinned to the start menu.

You will find that the pinned item will stay pinned until you decide to unpin it yourself. Assuming that you have not unpinned it, you will also find that the start menu's search will list the software for you now too.