Quick Tip: How to Open Programs On Your Taskbar by Number
If you’ve pinned program icons to your Taskbar, you don’t have to click the icons to open them. This tip works on Windows 10 and Windows 11.
Here’s a little-known but quick and easy trick.
You can use the Windows Key + a number key to open them. The programs on your taskbar are “numbered” from left to right. So, the first icon is #1 and the next one to its right is #2, and so on.
To open a program from its icon that’s pinned to your taskbar, hold down the Windows key + the number key that corresponds to the location of the pinned program icon on your taskbar. For example, the Windows key + the number 3 key will open the third program from the left of the program icons pinned to your Taskbar.
On my computer, the 3rd pinned program icon from the left happens to be Firefox. So, on my laptop, Windows Key + 3 opens Firefox. IrfanView is the seventh pinned program icon on my taskbar. So, if I hold down the Windows key and press the number 7 key, IrfanView opens.
Above you can see program icons on my taskbar: #1 is OE Classic, #2 is File Explorer, #3 is Firefox, #4 is Chrome, #5 is Microsoft Edge amd so on. Using the Windows Key + the number 4 key would open Chrome. It’s easy!
How useful this tip is, depends on how you use your computer. But learning new things is always useful, right?
Neat trick. Never knew about this. Tried it and it does work.
This is fine if you only have 9 icons on your taskbar, but I have 19 on my desktop’s taskbar.
I will try it on my laptop and on my Chromebook.
God’s blessings to you both for all the help you give to us “older” folks.
Rich
You might benefit from our Taskbar Real Estate article. This was was not a tip that we thought everyone will use but wrote it to let people know it’s a option. For me, 19 taskbar items would equal taskbar clutter, but to each his own.