Right click the desktop
Choose New -> Shortcut
In the box labeled "Type the location of the item
Copy and paste this
%windir%\explorer.exe shell:::{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48}
Click next
In the box labeled "Type the name of this shortcut"
Enter whatever you want to call it (Network or Connection or whatever)
Click Finish
Right click the new shortcut on your desktop and you should be able to pin it to Start or Taskbar
IF it functions as you hope, then you can delete the desktop shortcut
NOTE: You may want to right click the shortcut on the desktop and use the change icon button from the properties menu to give it a more distinctive icon as it will automatically adopt the generic folder (explorer) icon.