How to create a Desktop Shortcut in Windows 10

While this may sound very basic to some users, others may find it useful. I received a couple of mails in the last few months asking me to prepare a basic tutorial on how to create shortcuts. So in this post, we will see how to create a desktop shortcut in Windows 10/8/7, for your favorite application, program, website, etc, and place it on your Desktop or any other folder, for easy access.

Create Desktop Shortcut in Windows 10

To create Desktop Shortcut in Windows 10, do the following:

1. Right-click on its .exe file and select Send To > Desktop (Create shortcut)
2. Alternatively, right-click on desktop and select New > Shortcut
3. Enter the path of the program executable file
4. Click on Next and give it a name
5. Click on Finish will a desktop shortcut will be created
6. Change its icon if you wish now.

The simplest way to create a desktop shortcut for your favorite program is to right-click on its .exe file and select Send To > Desktop (Create shortcut). You will see that its shortcut has been created on your Windows desktop.

If you instead select Create shortcut, its shortcut will be created in the same location. You can then drag and drop into your desired folder location.

There is another way, and that is by right-clicking on your desktop and then selecting New > Shortcut. You will see the following box open.

You have to enter the path of the program executable file, for which you want to create the shortcut.

If you know the path enter it, else click on the Browse button and browse to the .exe file and select it.

As an example, I have taken FixWin, a free tool that helps you fix Windows problems in a  click. Once you have selected it, click om OK.

Now click on Next to open the following window. You may keep the same name or modify it.

Clicking on Finish will create a desktop shortcut. But you will notice that it takes the default icon.

To give the shortcut a proper icon, right-click on it and select Properties.

When the Properties box opens, click on the Change icon button.

The following box will open. You may select one of the system icons or you may click on the Browse button and browse to the folder where you may your personal stock of .ico files.

Select the icon you want and click on Apply. Your shortcut will get the cool icon, you wanted.

Incidentally, if you wish to, you can always cut-paste and move this shortcut and place it in any other folder of your choice.

If you do not like it, you can remove the Shortcut to text & the Shortcut Arrow using a registry tweak or our freeware Ultimate Windows Tweaker, which is available for Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista.

TIP: This is how you can create desktop shortcuts for Windows 10 UWP apps.

Using this procedure you can also:

1. Create Shutdown, Restart, Log Off, Suspend Shortcuts
2. Create Slide To Shutdown shortcut
3. Create Website Shortcuts
4. Create a desktop shortcut to Switch User Accounts
5. Create a Clear Clipboard shortcut
6. Create a shortcut for Evernote Tag and Notebook.

These posts will help you if you need to create other shortcuts:

• Create a single desktop shortcut to open multiple web pages
• Create a Remote Desktop Connection shortcut.
• Create Desktop Shortcut to Disable, Enable Windows Firewall
• Create Desktop shortcuts to open various Settings in Windows 10
• Automatically create shortcuts to removable media on Windows desktop.

You can also use our freeware Handy Shortcuts to create many other shortcuts. Our Create-A-Shortcut Tool will let you create shortcuts anywhere on your computer easily. Do take a look at them.