How to Create a Shortcut on Your Desktop in XP or Vista at IT Buddy

If you have file, website or program that you use often, it may be easier to create
a shortcut on your desktop rather than always looking for it in Windows Explorer or
the Start Menu. Examples shown apply to XP or Vista

In this example we are going to place a shortcut to MS Word 2007 onto the Desktop

1. Right click an empty area of the Desktop
2. Select: New > Shortcut as shown below

create shortcut

3. In the Create Shortcut dialog box shown click "Browse"
4. In the Browse for files or Folders dialog box shown below locate WINWORD.EXE ( this is the program link that opens MS Word 2007 in this example and it's path/location is "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\WINWORD.EXE")
5. Click on WINWORD.EXE then OK
6. Click Next in the Create Shortcut dialog box
7. Enter a name for the shortcut (in this instance MS Word 2007) and click Finish.
8. The shorcut called MS Word 2007 appears on the Desktop as shown below and obviously clicking it opens MS Word 2007

Shorcut on Desktop to MS Word 2007

Note:
You can drag an item to the Desktop to produce a shortcut - see Drag and Drop.

Using My Computer or Windows Explorer.

You can also place a shortcut on the desktop by:
1. Locate the file, website or program in My Computer or Windows Explorer and right click it
2. In the dialog box that opens click Send To then Desktop (create shortcut)

Placing a shortcut to MS Word 2007
on the Desktop using My Computer or Windows Explorer.