Chrome extensions sit in the top right corner of your browser. Chrome hides many of them behind a puzzle icon to keep the toolbar clean. This means your favorite tools like Stands AdBlocker might stay hidden. Reaching them through the menu is slow and tedious. You can pin the extension to the main toolbar instead. Pinning moves the icon out of the hidden menu. That way you can see it and use it instantly to make your browsing easier.
How Pinning Works in Chrome
Chrome groups all your installed extensions under the Extensions icon, which looks like a puzzle piece and sits to the right of your address bar. Clicking it opens a dropdown showing every extension you have installed. Next to each one is a pin icon. When the pin is filled in and dark, the extension is pinned to your toolbar. When it is outlined and grey, the extension is hidden in the dropdown.
Pinning does not change how an extension works. It only affects where its icon appears. Whether pinned or not, every extension you have enabled runs in the background according to its own settings.
Pinning an Extension Step by Step
Click the puzzle piece icon in the top right corner of Chrome. A list of your installed extensions appears. Find the extension you want to pin and click the pin icon next to its name. The icon will turn dark to confirm it is now pinned. You will immediately see the extension’s icon appear in your toolbar next to the puzzle piece.
To unpin an extension, repeat the same process. Clicking the pin again returns the extension to the hidden dropdown. You can pin and unpin as many times as you want, and the changes take effect immediately without needing to reload your browser.
If you want to rearrange the order of pinned extensions in your toolbar, click and drag them left or right. Chrome lets you set any order you prefer, so your most-used tools can sit closest to the address bar.
Pinning Stands AdBlocker for Quick Access
Stands AdBlocker is designed to be pinned. Once installed, pinning it gives you one-click access to its controls without opening any menus. You can see the blocked ad count for each page, pause blocking temporarily if a site requires ads to function, and report issues directly from the toolbar icon.
For users who also stream content on platforms like Twitch, having Stands pinned is especially useful. Twitch runs a high volume of ads, particularly mid-stream ads that interrupt live content. Using Stands as a twitch ad blocker reduces these interruptions significantly, and having it pinned means you can check its status or adjust settings without leaving the stream. The extension handles Twitch ads at
the request level, which means many ads are stopped before they reach the player.
Keyboard Shortcuts for Pinned Extensions
Chrome allows you to assign keyboard shortcuts to extensions, which works especially well for tools you have pinned. To set a shortcut, go to chrome://extensions, click the hamburger menu in the top left corner of that page, and select Keyboard Shortcuts. You can assign a key combination to open or activate any extension that supports it.
This pairs well with pinned extensions because you can trigger them without even moving your mouse to the toolbar. For an ad blocker like Stands, a keyboard shortcut to toggle blocking on and off can be useful when testing sites or temporarily enabling ads on a page you want to support.
Syncing Pinned Extensions Across Devices
If you use Chrome signed into your Google account on multiple computers, your extensions sync automatically. However, pinning preferences may not always carry over perfectly between devices. Chrome syncs which extensions are installed and enabled, but toolbar pin status can reset on a new device.
After signing into Chrome on a new machine, it is worth spending a minute going through the extensions menu and re-pinning the tools you rely on. The process is the same as described above and only takes a few seconds per extension.
Getting the Most Out of Your Chrome Toolbar
Pinning extensions is a small adjustment that adds up over time. Every click you save by having a tool directly in your toolbar rather than hidden behind a menu reduces friction in your daily browsing.
Start by pinning the two or three extensions you use most. Stands AdBlocker is a natural first choice given how actively it works across every page you visit. From there, add whatever fits your workflow. Keep the list short enough that every pinned icon is something you genuinely reach for, and clear out extensions you installed and forgot about. A clean, well-organized toolbar makes Chrome faster to use and easier to navigate.
