How to Launch Web Pages From the Taskbar in Windows 7

Do you use your computers for more than a couple of hours daily? Then you probably have a lot of windows open at the same time because you would tend to click on the browser’s launch icon to enter a URL to visit a website. It’s not really a cumbersome task but what if there’s a way to make it easier for you?

With Windows 7, you can install a miniature address bar in your taskbar. To go to a website, all you need to do is click anywhere inside the miniature address bar and type the web address. It will then launch a browser and go straight to the site that you need.

To activate the address bar in your taskbar, first, you must right-click on the taskbar, and select Properties. This will launch the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box. On the Toolbars tab, check off Address, then click on OK.

You will now see the address bar in the taskbar and it’s ready to use.
Just type a web address, and Windows 7 will launch your default browser window, already headed to the website. By default, the miniature address bar works for Internet Explorer but if you want to use it for Chrome, Firefox or any other browser, you need to set the browser as default first.