Registry or command line - Set fixed position of pinned task bar item

Question

I am installing Google Chrome in addition to Internet Explorer 11 on several Windows-7 machines. After the installation, I would like to have Google Chrome set to the same position (#2) in the task bar for all users.

The icons from left to right would be the Windows marble -> IE -> Chrome -> Windows Explorer etc.

I know you can press Win+__ (number) to open that program.

Is there a way to set via a registry entry or command line so that Google Chrome will be in position #2 for all users?

Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

See my answer to this question for information about pinning taskbar items via script.

Short answer is that Windows stores information about pinned taskbar items with encrypted binary blobs in the registry to prevent them from being modified through scripts. Microsoft did this on purpose because their philosophy is that the taskbar should be the user's preference, not a place for software vendors to advertise their product. Obviously it doesn't work because Google Chrome does this (as does Firefox).

In that answer I posted a VBScript by which you can pin/unpin items. The problem in your situation is that you can't just modify the order of items that are already there. You can only unpin everything and then pin them back in the order you want, but that would remove anything the user has pinned. I don't think there is a way to accomplish that.