How do I pin an Excel file to the Excel start menu icon?

I have a file pinned to my Word icon in my start menu like so...

I am not sure how I was able to pin this file in this location in the first place, but now I want to do more.

Here is what my Excel right click menu looks like. How do I pin an Excel file to this?

2 Answers

Unfortunately Windows loses pinned/recent menu items from time to time. It appears you have recently fallen victim to this Windows issue, which is why you are not seeing how you can pin one of your files to the list.

Normally, each time you open an Excel file, Windows adds it to the Recent section of the context menu (missing in your screenshot).

To pin a file from this context menu, you can then hover over the filename and click the toggle button that appears to the right:

For another way to pin files, if you pin Excel to the Taskbar you may then drag and drop Excel files from File Explorer onto the Taskbar icon to pin them.

I found the solution to this. In my case I had a setting turned off that just needs to be turned back on.

1. Click on Windows button. Type in jump. Select the "Show recently..."
2. Activate the "Show recently opened items .."
3. Open the file you wish to pin
4. Right-click the Word/Excel application in the menu bar
5. Pin the file just opened
6. Turn "Show recently..." off again
7. Now the file shows when you right click the Word/Excel icon in the Start Menu