20 Responses to “How to create shortcuts for files, folders, apps, and web pages in Windows”

  • David P. says:

    Have to say, some of the methods seem a little long-winded. The way I have done it for years is to right click and hold on the item, be it a file or folder, drag it to the desktop and then let go. A small menu will appear, “copy here”, “move here” or “create shortcut here”. Select what you want (shortcut in this case), re-name if necessary (highlight, if using single mouse clicking and use F2) and there you go!

  • Frenchie says:

    Thanks! That was an easy trick and it really helped!

  • Chris Raisin says:

    I am having a problem with the shortcut wizard in that often it only shows “Desktop” and then my userID under it (missing “ThisPC” and all the other items showing in your final screen capture of the wizard above).
    I suspect that means corrupted User folders, but am not sure. It is such a pain to set up a new user, transfer all the user folders (except files/folders starting with “NT”) from the corrupted user folder to the new one, deleting the older user folder then renaming the new user folder to the name used previously in the old folder.. It is even worse if the corrupted folders are those used by the “Live” account (the one stored in the cloud by Microsoft).
    Does anyone know of an easier way around this?

  • Julianich Defrancisa says:

    You can use KrojamSoft FilesSearch Tool, it helped me out on many cases. Hope this helped you out!

  • JohnDohe says:

    I need to pin a printer to my Windows 7 Pro taskbar
    that will allow me to right-click it and see the same
    context-menu appear that appears when I click the
    printer in “Devices and Printers”.

    How to do that?

    Please help!

    Thanks!

  • mike abbett says:

    How dou put a folder on a windows 8.1 desktop that you can put shortcuts in. Also sould be able to assign an appropriate icon to the folder. This Iis easy with allprevious versions but I cant find a way to do it with W8.

  • Vô Thường says:

    Hi Marte Brengle,

    How can I create shortcut for this special folder?
    Internet Options Shell:::{A3DD4F92-658A-410F-84FD-6FBBBEF2FFFE}

    Thanks,
    VT

    • SyGo says:

      Unfortunately, there is no way to create shortcuts for special folders in Windows. But you can try to use TaskLayout to open any system folders with your custom hotkey.

  • Koen Andries says:

    @Marte,

    thank you for your answer.

    Modifying the registry in order to launch any command from any folder shouldn ‘t be too hard, but can you tell me what procedure has to be launched for invoking the standard Windows ‘Make Shortcut’ pop-up window ?

    Thank you for your feedback,
    Koen Andries

    • Marte Brengle says:

      I’m sorry, that’s gone beyond what I know. You might check on the Microsoft web site to see if they have your answer.

  • Koen Andries says:

    A question :

    when I want to create a shortcut to a webpage in a given folder, I click “New” –> “Shortcut” in the right-click menu from that folder. Unfortunately, the option “Shortcut” is often absent in the right-click menu from a folder.

    Is there a way I can get the option “Shortcut” in the right-click menu from ANY folder ?

    Your answer would be of great help to me.

  • Marte Brengle says:

    You’re right! Thanks for adding that great tip.

  • Hector says:

    The best and fastest way is to copy the source and click Paste shortcut instead of Paste. 🙂

  • BJ TX says:

    I’ve had to pleasure to read many of your tutorials. They are well done & very helpful — this one included!
    I’ll keep on reading them !
    Thanks

  • Anonymous says:

    heyy.. its really look like all the old stuff which everyone are well familiar with…

    it will be better if add new innovative things…

  • Sumeet Kukreja says:

    Tutorial on Creating Shortcut. That’s really for someone’s grandma…. According to me The new generation knows all these things

    • Ciprian Adrian Rusen says:

      There are two reasons for this tutorial:
      1. It can help some people. Plus, the part about shortcuts to web pages is not that widely known.
      2. It fits in well in a series of articles we want to publish in the future.

      • Sumeet Kukreja says:

        I agree Sir,
        “Create Shortcut” is described on many websites in many posts. But it is difficult for new users that how to create shortcuts? Thanks to you and 7tutorials that they will easily learn how to create shortcuts.

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