How To Rename Pinned Taskbar Items On Windows 10
You can pin apps to the Start menu and the taskbar. An app is pinned by its own name i.e., if you pin Firefox, and hover your mouse cursor over it, a little tool-tip tells you that it’s Firefox. If you need to rename pinned taskbar items to something other than the default app name, you can. The process is pretty simple.
Rename Pinned Taskbar Items
If you already have the app pinned to the taskbar, you should unpin it first. Next, create a shortcut of the app you want to rename on the taskbar. It’s easy enough to do if you know where the app’s EXE is.
Find the EXE, right-click it and select Send to>Desktop (Create shortcut) from the context menu. Click the name to enter edit mode, or right-click it and select ‘Rename’ from the context menu.
Enter the name you want the app to have when it’s pinned to the taskbar. That’s really about it. Right-click the renamed shortcut and pin it to the taskbar by selecting the Pin to taskbar option from the context menu.
Once the app has been pinned, hover your mouse over it and it will show you the name you gave the shortcut. You won’t see the app’s default name.
This is useful for apps that allow you to run multiple instances such as Chrome that lets you create multiple profiles. You can rename the different instances and it will be easier to distinguish them when you want to launch one from the taskbar.
The app name on the taskbar takes a while to appear so if it doesn’t help you differentiate between the two different app instances, you can try changing the app’s icon. To change the app icon, you need unpin it from the taskbar and create a desktop shortcut for it.
Right-click the shortcut and select Properties from the context menu. On the shortcut tab, you will see a ‘Change icon’ button. Select a different icon for it from anywhere on your system. You will need to find the icon yourself but make sure it’s an ICO file.
Once you’ve changed the icon, right-click the same shortcut and pin it to the taskbar. It goes without saying that you will need to repeat the process if you ever need to make any changes to the icon or the app name. You cannot pin the app again from it’s Start menu tile or the app list because it will pin with its default name and icon.
You can also rename items on the app list in the Start menu.
