How to create a shortcut in Windows 10 to open any program, file, or folder faster

• You can create a shortcut in Windows 10 to access a file or program from the desktop, or another folder.
• Shortcuts are usually created automatically when you install a program for the first time, but can be done manually for any file or folder on your Windows 10 computer.
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When using Windows 10, it can be very difficult to navigate through all your computer’s folders, and annoying to have to search for a program every time you want to use it. This is when shortcuts can come in handy.

Shortcuts in Windows 10 allow you to go from one area of your computer, like your desktop, straight to what you need opened. When you install a program, it usually gives you the option to create a shortcut on your desktop and Start Menu for exactly this purpose.

You can manually create shortcuts for an application, which will launch that program as soon as you click it, or shortcuts that will bring you to a specific folder.

Here’s how you make shortcuts in Windows 10.

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How to create a shortcut to a file or folder in Windows 10 in two ways

1. Navigate to the folder you want to make a shortcut to. In this example, we’ll use the Steam games folder called «common,» which can often be hard to get to. I’ll then add a shortcut to it on my desktop.

2. Right-click the folder icon you want to make a shortcut of, and select «Create shortcut» from the right-click menu. This will create a «shortcut» file that can be placed anywhere — for example, on your desktop. All you need to do is drag it there.

3. Alternatively, you can right-click and hover your mouse over the «Send to» option. If you select «Desktop» from this menu, it will automatically create a shortcut for you, and place it on your desktop.

How to create a shortcut to an application in Windows 10

Applications work in much the same way, but require you to create a shortcut to the program’s executable or .exe file. This is the file you’d usually click to open the program.

1. To find the program’s executable file, either press the Windows logo on your keyboard or press the icon at the bottom left of your screen, and search for the name application you want to make a shortcut of. In this case, I’ll use Steam.

2. Once the program appears in your search results, right-click the icon and select «Open file location.»

3. This should open the file’s folder, with the .exe file already highlighted. Right-click it and select «Create shortcut» to make a shortcut which can be placed anywhere. You can also send a shortcut automatically to the desktop, like you did for a folder.

4. Double-clicking the shortcut will open the application, no matter where the shortcut is placed.

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How to Create a Desktop Shortcut on Windows

Set up easy access to programs and files you frequently use

When you create a shortcut on the Windows desktop, you get easy access to any file or program installed on your computer. There are two requirements for creating a shortcut. You must know the file or program path or be able to navigate to it. You must also have permission to access the file or program.

Instructions in this article apply to Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7.

Create a Shortcut From the Desktop

On your desktop screen, right-click in any empty space.

A menu appears. Select New > Shortcut.

In the Create Shortcut wizard, select Browse to find the file or program you want to create a shortcut for.

If you already know the path to the file or program, type it and proceed to step 5.

Navigate to the file or program you want to create a shortcut for. Select OK.

Select Next.

Type the name you want to assign to the shortcut, then select Finish.

Your new shortcut appears on your desktop. You can use it as you would the other shortcuts.

Create a Desktop Shortcut Using File Explorer

You can also create a desktop shortcut from File Explorer.

From your taskbar, launch File Explorer.

Navigate to the file or program and select it.

Right-click the name of the file. From the menu that appears, select Send to > Desktop (create shortcut)

Your new shortcut appears on your desktop. You can use it as you would the other shortcuts.

The Easiest Way to Create New Folders in Windows Using Shortcuts

Those of us who come from the days of typewriters rather than keyboards know all about shortcut keys. This was/is a method of speeding up your work routine and is still very prevalent today. For those of you who are not shortcut key users, don’t worry. There is always another way to do everything in Windows.

Leave it to Microsoft to change some of the shortcut keys from one operating system to another. This must be one of the ways that they are always «improving» and therefore selling a new, upgraded version of their software. But let’s get back on task.

Shortcut Key Notes

• Whenever shortcut keys are listed, with a plus sign ( + ) in the string, such as Ctrl+C, this indicates that the Ctrl key is held while the letter C is pressed.
• When a shortcut key is listed with commas separating the string, such as Alt+F, W, F, the Alt key is held while the letter F is pressed, but then both these keys are released while the W and F keys are pressed one after the other.
• You can use either upper or lower case letters in these shortcut key combinations. Uppercase letters are just shown in this article for clarity.

Windows XP Shortcut Keys to Create a New Folder

The keyboard shortcut key combination is this: Alt+F, W, F. Translated that means:

• Hold down the Alt key while pressing the letter F.
• Let go of both the Alt key and letter F and then press the letter W followed by the letter F in quick succession.

Keyboard and Mouse Combination

The mouse and keyboard shortcut key combination is: Right-click, W, F. Translated that means:

• Right-click in the window and then press the letter W followed by the letter F in quick succession.

Shortcut Keys to Create a New Folder for Windows 7, 8, and 10

This shortcut key combination is more obvious and much easier to remember:
Ctrl+Shift+N

How do I create a shortcut via command-line in Windows?

I want my .bat script (test.bat) to create a shortcut to itself so that I can copy it to my windows 8 Startup folder.

I have written this line of code to copy the file but I haven’t yet found a way to create the said shortcut, as you can see it only copies the script.

Can you help me out?

10 Answers 10

You could use a PowerShell command. Stick this in your batch script and it’ll create a shortcut to %

f0 in %userprofile%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup :

If you prefer not to use PowerShell, you could use mklink to make a symbolic link. Syntax:

See mklink /? in a console window for full syntax, and this web page for further information.

In your batch script, do:

The shortcut created isn’t a traditional .lnk file, but it should work the same nevertheless. Be advised that this will only work if the .bat file is run from the same drive as your startup folder. Also, apparently admin rights are required to create symbolic links.

Cannot be done with pure batch.Check the shortcutJS.bat — it is a jscript/bat hybrid and should be used with .bat extension:

With -help you can check the other options (you can set icon , admin permissions and etc.)

The best way is to run this batch file. open notepad and type:-

Save as filename.bat(be careful while saving select all file types) worked well in win XP.

Rohit Sahu’s answer worked best for me in Windows 10. The PowerShell solution ran, but no shortcut appeared. The JScript solution gave me syntax errors. I didn’t try mklink, since I didn’t want to mess with permissions.

I wanted the shortcut to appear on the desktop. But I also needed to set the icon, the description, and the working directory. Note that MyApp48.bmp is a 48×48 pixel image. Here’s my mod of Rohit’s solution:

Nirsoft’s NirCMD can create shortcuts from a command line, too. (Along with a pile of other functions.) Free and available here:

Create File or Folder Shortcuts from Command Line in Windows

It is extremely easy to create shortcut to a file or folder using the Shortcut Create wizard in Windows, but there’s no direct way to create a shortcut from the command line. Sure, there is the mklink utility but it creates a “symbolic link” and not a “shortcut”.

If you want to create shortcuts from command-line in Windows, here are some ways:

Windows PowerShell

Save below script in a file named set-shortcut.ps1 . Then place it inside your $pwd (Program Working Directory). If you don’t know the path, simply entering $pwd in PowerShell will give you the location. The default path is C:\Windows\System32 .

Now whenever you want to create a shortcut from PowerShell, call it like this:

Shortcut

Shortcut is a small program, weighing just 56KB, that allows you to create, modify or query Windows shortcuts from the command-line.

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

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.

Download: Shortcut

NirCmd

NirCmd is a command-line utility from Nir Sofer that can create shortcut to a file or folder, among various other tasks.

Download: NirCmd

With these methods, you can also create shortcut to a file, folder, or network path that doesn’t exist or is unavailable at the moment.