How to Create A New Shortcut

Creating a new shortcut on your Windows desktop is an easy process, whether you want the shortcut to go to a program, to a data file, to a web site, or even to a shared file or folder on another computer across your home network.

The first step is to get a clear spot on your Desktop so that you can see the Desktop. Then, right-click on that clear spot of the Desktop (not on a window or on another shortcut).

The popup Context Menu will give you an option "New" — left click on New. That will open a fly-out menu, to which many programs can add options. At the top, Windows puts the options Folder and Shortcut. Left-click on Shortcut (see below).

That will open the Create Shortcut dialog box. As shown in the left imate, you can type the path to the file or folder (or shared file or folder or Web URL) in the box, or you can click on the Browse... button to use Windows Explorer to locate the target for your shortcut.

The image on the right is the one you see if ou use the Browse button — the results would have been the same if I had typed D:\temp into the box, except that the D:\temp is highlighted.

Click Next to continue.

(click on the image for a larger version)

(click on the image for a larger version)

Now, type the title that you want to see on the shortcut.

Remember, you can always change the title of a shortcut by slowly left-clicking twice on it, which puts the title into Edit mode. Or, you can right-click on the shortcut, and select Rename.

Copyright © 2009 Terry A. Stockdale. All rights reserved.