How To Create A Desktop Shortcut On Windows
One of the oldest and most usedfeatures on Windowsis the ability to create shortcuts to files and programs stored on your PC. Creating a shortcut is not the same thing as moving the program or file to your desktop folder. Rather, a shortcut functions as a link to that file’s actual location. When a shortcut is placed on the desktop, it takes up only about 1 KB of space, which is next to nothing, making shortcuts incredibly lightweight tools to help you quickly access the things you use most frequently.
But while many programs will automatically create desktop shortcuts for themselves when installed or updated, many Windows users don’t know how to create shortcuts on their own. Learning how to do so can unlock potential in the operating system. You can more easily organize your PC, access programs quickly without pinning them to the taskbar, and even customize your shortcuts so that you can launch to specific parts of an application.
Creating desktop shortcuts on Windows is an incredibly simple process that only takes a few seconds. Here’s how to create desktop shortcuts to programs and files, as well as how to launch shortcuts with specific executables and customize shortcut icons to make everything look nicer.
Where to start
To create a desktop shortcut to a program installed on your Windows PC:
You can always delete the desktop shortcut without deleting the program itself if you decide later to get rid of it.
Creating a desktop shortcut to a file
To create a desktop shortcut to a file stored on your Windows PC:
You can always delete the shortcut without affecting the file itself if you later decide to delete the shortcut from your desktop.
Supercharge your desktop shortcuts by customizing them
Even Windows power users might not know that shortcuts can be customized to make them even more powerful. you may add specific arguments and parameters to the shortcut so that it directs to a more specific location. As one example, you can create aChrome or Microsoft Edgeshortcut that launches directly to a specific webpage. For instance, here’s how to create a desktop shortcut for Edge that will go directly to Google. These steps will also work with Chrome.
Clicking the shortcut from your desktop should now take you directly to Google.
The Shortcut section of a shortcut’s properties menu will also let you choose whether to launch the app in a maximized, minimized, or normal window. Clicking on Advanced settings will let you choose whether to run the program as an administrator.
Make your desktop look nicer by customizing shortcut icons
If you’ve been doing everything else in this how-to guide, you’ve probably loaded your Windows desktop up with all the shortcuts you need. But there’s one problem: they can look cluttered and ugly. You can change that by customizing the appearance of the shortcut with your own custom icons. Here’s how to change the icon on a desktop shortcut:
Your desktop shortcut should now appear with the custom icon you selected.
