Opening the Settings app in Windows 10 and Windows 11 is pretty straightforward. Press “Windows key + I”, and you are done. However, what if you want to open a specific page, such as Windows Update or Bluetooth, directly from your Start menu without navigating through menus?
Thankfully, you can easily pin your most commonly used Settings pages to the Start menu in Windows 11 and Windows 10. For example, I often open the “Bluetooth & devices” and “Windows Update” pages. So, I pinned them to the Start menu. This way, I can simply click those icons in the Start menu to launch the Settings app directly to that specific page.
In this quick and easy guide, I will show how to do this in simple steps. Let’s get started.
Pin Any Settings Page to Start Menu in Windows 11
- Right-click on the desktop.
- Select the “New“> “Shortcut” option.
- Enter the “explorer ms-settings-uri” in the location field while replacing “ms-settings-uri” with the actual URI command (list below)
- Click “Next“.
- Enter a name of your choice in the “Name” field.
- Click “Finish“.
- Right-click the newly created shortcut.
- Select the “Pin to Start” option.
- With this, that specific Settings page is pinned to the Start menu.
- You can delete the desktop shortcut.
Change the shortcut icon (optional): If you don’t like the default “File Explorer” icon, you can change it. To do that, right-click the shortcut and select “Properties”. Click the “Change icon” button. Paste “%SystemRoot%\System32\imageres.dll” in the “Look for icons in this file” field and press “Enter”. Select the icon of your choice and click “OK” twice. If needed, re-pin the icon again.
Windows 11 Settings URI Commands
| Settings Page | URI Command |
|---|---|
| Display | ms-settings:display |
| Sound | ms-settings:sound |
| Notifications | ms-settings:notifications |
| Power & Battery | ms-settings:powersleep |
| Storage | ms-settings:storagesense |
| Bluetooth | ms-settings:bluetooth |
| Printers & Scanners | ms-settings:printers |
| Cameras | ms-settings:camera |
| Mouse | ms-settings:mousetouchpad |
| Wi-Fi | ms-settings:network-wifi |
| VPN | ms-settings:network-vpn |
| Mobile Hotspot | ms-settings:network-mobilehotspot |
| Background | ms-settings:personalization-background |
| Colors | ms-settings:colors |
| Taskbar | ms-settings:taskbar |
| Installed Apps | ms-settings:appsfeatures |
| Default Apps | ms-settings:defaultapps |
| Startup Apps | ms-settings:startupapps |
| Windows Update | ms-settings:windowsupdate |
Good to read: URI Commands to open built-in store apps in Windows
Pin Any Settings Page to Start Menu in Windows 10
The Windows 10 Settings app provides a simple context menu option to pin any Settings page to the Start. Here’s how.
Note: You can pin both the main category pages (the ones on the home screen of the Settings app) and the individual sub-pages inside each category.
- Open the Settings app by pressing “Windows key + I“.
- Right-click on any category option on the homepage.
- Select the “Pin to Start” option.
- Click “Yes” in the confirmation dialog.
- To pin a sub-page of a category, click on the category name. For example, “Personalization”.
- On the left sidebar, right-click on any page name.
- Select the “Pin to Start” option.
- Click “Yes” in the confirmation dialog.
- With this, that specific Settings page is pinned to the Start menu in Windows 10.
Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)
First, open the Settings app by pressing the “Windows key + I” shortcut. Once it opens, you will see several main categories on the home screen. Here, right-click on any category and select the “Pin to Start” option. For example, to pin the “System” page to the Start menu, right-click on it and select “Pin to Start”.
Windows will show a confirmation prompt. Click the “Yes” button to continue.
You can also pin any sub-page of a category. To do that, click on the category name. For example, “Personalization”. Next, find the page you want to pin on the left sidebar, right-click on it, and select “Pin to Start“. For example, I want to pin the “Colors” page. So, I right-clicked it on the sidebar and selected “Pin to Start”.
Windows will show a confirmation prompt. Click on the “Yes” button to continue.
As soon as you do that, that specific Settings page is pinned to the Start menu. Once pinned, this is how it looks in the start menu.
Optionally, you can resize the tile to fit your specific Start menu style. To resize, right-click on the tile and select the “Resize” option. If you have multiple Settings pages pinned to the Start menu, you can group them into a folder. To do that, simply drag and drop one tile onto another. A simple but great way to keep your Start menu organized.
That is all. It is that simple to pin any Settings page to the Start menu in Windows 11 and Windows 10. If you have any questions or need help, comment below.
