How can I pin Cygwin.bat to my Windows 10 start screen?

Seems you can't pin a .bat directly for some reason.

Is there a way to have Cygwin's bash launched from my start screen?

Update : BTW, I followed the advice in some of the "duplicate questions" eg. make a shortcut and do that, and it seems you can't pin shortcuts to bat files in Windows 10 either.

interstar

Posted 2016-06-17T18:15:05.327

Reputation: 793

Answers

It's a bit of a PITA, but you can do it.

Make a shortcut to the batch file you want (save it on your desktop or someplace).
Open up the Run dialog (Win+R).
Run shell:programs.
Copy the shortcut you made into the folder it opens.
Reboot, and log back in.
Your batch file should now show up under Start -> All Apps.
Right-click it and select Pin to Start.

Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007

Posted 2016-06-17T18:15:05.327

Reputation: 103 763

I didn't find it necessary to reboot, but otherwise, this works perfectly. – Ben Blank – 2016-07-23T19:30:02.377

You probably don't want to launch bash, you want to launch a terminal which runs bash within it. The cygwin installation should have placed a shortcut to 'Cygwin Terminal' on your desktop. Pin that to the taskbar/Start menu and off you go.

If you don't see a shortcut for it (it actually launches the mintty terminal program) just run the cygwin setup through to completion (it will do an update on your existing packages if you don't select anything extra) and on the final dialog check the boxes for "Create icon on Desktop" and "Add icon to Start Menu" and you will have it. You can link that one to the taskbar to be able to launch your terminal whenever you want.

P. Heffner

Posted 2016-06-17T18:15:05.327

Reputation: 184

Indeed, the MinTTY terminal is superior to the Windows command window. It's been available as the default Cygwin terminal for quite some time now. – Daniel B – 2016-06-17T20:28:01.100