Is it possible to hide the pin/unpin buttons for items on the task bar?

When right clicking an icon on the taskbar Windows displays a small menu. This always contains a button to pin/unpin the application on the taskbar.

I frequently use this menu to open new windows of applications and often accidentally hit the pin/unpin button. Since I do not frequently change the applications which are pinned to my taskbar I do not really need these buttons to be there all the time.

Is there a way to hide these buttons so that I can no longer hit them by accident?

The registry way

1. Open an elevated command prompt.

2. Type or paste the following command, and press Enter to run it:

   reg add "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer" /v "NoPinningToTaskbar" /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
   

3. Log off and log back on.

Using the Group Policy Editor

Only for Professional/Pro or higher editions.

1. Press Win+R, type or paste gpedit.msc in the text box, and press Enter.

2. Navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar.

3. Double-click the Do not allow pinning programs to the Taskbar policy, and set it to Enabled.

At least Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2.

This policy setting allows you to control pinning programs to the Taskbar.

If you enable this policy setting, users cannot change the programs currently pinned to the Taskbar. If any programs are already pinned to the Taskbar, these programs continue to show in the Taskbar. However, users cannot unpin these programs already pinned to the Taskbar, and they cannot pin new programs to the Taskbar.

If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, users can change the programs currently pinned to the Taskbar.

_{Source: Group Policy Search}