How to Create a Shortcut on your Desktop

Shortcuts are really easy to set up and it is one of those skills that most users may already know how to do and have done before. Creating shortcuts can allow you to become more organised and efficient by having links to all of your frequently used files folders and programs in one location. In this tech tip, we will discuss the importance of creating shortcuts and the different ways on how to create a shortcut on your desktop.

When a user decides that they would like to have data more easily accessible from a local location such as their desktop the logic is, why not copy the files and folders to where they would like to be accessed.  Two big issues can arise from using this technique.

1. Duplicate files are created making data management and data access a nightmare.  Other users are not be able to access this data and when duplicate files exist it is hard to distinguish which is the current version of files.
2. When files are copied to your desktop, this contributes to the size of your profile.  When a user logs into a computer your profile is loaded and the larger the profile the longer it will take to load and log in plus there is an substantial increased risk the profile will become corrupt and not load correctly.

Follow the below steps when creating shortcuts.

OPTION ONE 

Create Shortcut from Windows Explorer Address Bar

1. Open Windows Explorer or My Computer, and navigate to and open the folderor drive that you want to create a shortcut of.2. Drag the small folder or drive icon at the far left side of the address bar to a location (ex: desktop) that you want to create a shortcut of the folder at, then drop and release to create it. (see screenshot below)

OPTION TWO 

Create Shortcut using “Send To” Context Menu Item

1. Select (highlight) one or more file(s), folder(s), or program(s)(exe file) that you want to create a shortcut of, right click or press and hold on them, then click on Send To and Desktop (create shortcut). (see screenshot below)

1. You can now move the shortcut(s) to where you like for ease of use.

OPTION THREE 

Create Shortcut using “Create Shortcut” Context Menu Item

1. Select (highlight) one or more file(s), folder(s), or program(s)(exe file) that you want to create a shortcut of, right click or press and hold on them, then click on Create shortcut. (see screenshot below)

1. If prompted, click on Yes. (see screenshot below)

1. You can now move the shortcut(s) to where you like for ease of use.

OPTION FOUR 

Create Shortcut using “New -> Shortcut” Context Menu Item

1. Right click on an empty space on the desktopor Windows Explorer, then click on New and Shortcut. (see screenshot below)

1. Click on the Browse button. (see screenshot below)

1. Navigate to and select the file, folder, drive, or program(exe file) that you want to create a shortcut of, and click on OK. (see screenshot below)

You can also type an Internet address.  For example http://www.google.com

1. Click on Next. (see screenshot below)

1. Type in a name you would like the shortcut to have, and click on Finish. (see screenshot below)

1. You can now move the shortcut to where you like for ease of use.

Option 5

Create a shortcut via the command prompt.

Open Command prompt.

The syntax will be:

Shortcut.exe /F:filename /A:C|E|Q [/T:target] [/P:parameters] [/W:workingdir] [/R:runstyle] [/I:icon,index] [/H:hotkey] [/D:description]

For example, to create shortcut to Calculator in the current directory, the command would be as :h

shortcut.exe /F:Calculator.lnk /A:C /T:C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe

Shortcut lets you define custom icon for the shortcut, keyboard shortcut, define running mode, and more by adding additional parameters to the command. The complete list of supported parameters for the program is listed below.

Shortcut parameters:

/F:filename	: Specifies the .LNK shortcut file.
/A:action	: Defines the action to take (C=Create, E=Edit or Q=Query).
/T:target	: Defines the target path and file name the shortcut points to.
/P:parameters	: Defines the command-line parameters to pass to the target.
/W:working dir	: Defines the working directory the target starts with.
/R:run style	: Defines the window state (1=Normal, 3=Max, 7=Min).
/I:icon,index	: Defines the icon and optional index (file.exe or file.exe,0).
/H:hotkey	: Defines the hotkey, a numeric value of the keyboard shortcut.
/D:description	: Defines the description (or comment) for the shortcut.

For more informartion check out How to Create Desktop Shortcuts from Command Line