Icons automatically pinned to taskbar after every reboot in Windows 10

Question

I have a corporate laptop which is managed by my organization. Each time Windows starts, IE and Windows Explorer are automatically pinned to the taskbar.

This is kind of neat, but I am wondering how it is done (the few desktop IT guys I asked were not sure, as they didn't setup that part). On my personal devices, when an icon is pinned or unpinned, a reboot does not affect icons on the taskbar.

What methods are available to automatically pin icons to the taskbar when Windows starts?
(PowerShell scripts? registry settings? other configuration?)

Answer 1

From this documentation: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/configure-windows-10-taskbar

In my case I find: C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\LayoutModification.xml

here i have this line: CustomTaskbarLayoutCollection PinListPlacement="Replace"

-> the items in this PinList will be pinned to the taskbar on every logon (through explorer.exe as far I understand). Even if I remove the items and logon again with same profile the items will be pinned aside manually pinned items.

The part of the xml that defines the StartMenu will only apply on first logon.

Answer 2

There are a few different ways administrators can accomplish this; the two most common are likely via GPO settings or through a layout modification XML file pushed through GPO.

The local group policy editor has a Start Menu and Taskbar section within User Configuration that has all kinds of options:

You can get really into specifics through the XML method, with a file that looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LayoutModificationTemplate
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/LayoutModification"
    xmlns:defaultlayout="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/FullDefaultLayout"
    xmlns:start="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/StartLayout"
    xmlns:taskbar="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/TaskbarLayout"
    Version="1">
  <CustomTaskbarLayoutCollection>
    <defaultlayout:TaskbarLayout>
      <taskbar:TaskbarPinList>
        <taskbar:UWA AppUserModelID="Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe!MicrosoftEdge" />
        <taskbar:DesktopApp DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\System Tools\File Explorer.lnk" />
      </taskbar:TaskbarPinList>
    </defaultlayout:TaskbarLayout>
 </CustomTaskbarLayoutCollection>
</LayoutModificationTemplate>

Where you can see there is a specific section for <taskbar:TaskbarPinList>.