Windows 8 Shortcuts



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Windows 8 Shortcuts/Tiles

Windows 8 tries to keep the Start screen and the desktop in two separate worlds, but you’ll constantly find yourself jumping between them. When you grow tired of meandering through the woods to find a program, folder, disk drive, document, or even a website, create a desktop shortcut — an icon or a Start Screen tile that takes you directly to the object of your desires.

Windows 8 offers easy a number of options to place shortcuts:

❖ You can pin a tile to the start screen

❖ You can pin a tile to the taskbar

❖ You can create a shortcut on the desktop

In an odd break in protocol, touchscreens can’t right-click on the Start screen. Instead, select a Start screen tile: Hold your finger down on the tile and slide your finger down a fraction of an inch. When a check mark appears in the tile’s upper-right corner, lift your finger. On non-touchscreens, you can select the tile by right clicking the tile.The menu bar appears below, letting you choose the option you want.

To “Pin to Start”

Go to the Start Screen by pushing the Windows Key. Find the icon for the desired app by right-clicking on an empty space on the Start Screen, then clicking All Apps. Once you’ve found the icon, right-click on the icon and it will give you several choices. Click on “Pin to Start” to add a tile for that app on the Start Screen. Repeat this process to ‘unpin’ the tile.

To “Pin to Taskbar”

The same process as for Pin to Start except click on “Pin to Taskbar” instead. Repeat this process to ‘unpin’ the tile.

Create a Desktop Shortcut

The method to create a desktop shortcut is not obvious at all. Here is how you can quickly put a shortcut icon on your Windows 8 desktop for any installed desktop program. This does not work for the Windows 8 style apps that only run in the non-desktop environment.

Go to the Start Screen by pushing the Windows Key. Find the icon for the desired app

by right-clicking on an empty space on the Start Screen, then clicking All Apps. Once

you’ve found the icon, right-click on the icon.

One of the available choices will be, Open file location. This switches you to the

desktop and opens File Explorer. The shortcut location for the program will already be

selected. Right-click on the program name. Move the pointer down to Send to then

horizontally over to the sub-menu. Move down to Desktop (create shortcut) and Click.

That’s it. You will now have a shortcut for that program on the desktop. You can position it as you like. The shortcut works as expected, double-click it to open the program.

Note: The location of these Start Screen shortcuts is actually the same as the Classic Start Menu that was available in Windows 7 and holds the same folder structure.

You can also Pin the icon to the Taskbar, the go to the Desktop and right-click the icon on the taskbar and click on ‘send to desktop” (create shortcut). If the full options panel doesn’t display, hold down the SHIFT key before right-clicking the icon in the taskbar and it will give many more options including Pin to Start, Open File Location, Unpin from Taskbar, Send To and Create Shortcut.

Create a shortcut to a File or Folder (and place on the Desktop)

You can also create a shortcut to a file or folder. Find the desired file/folder (typically in the User Folder) and right-click on the file or folder. Choose Send To, and select the “Desktop” (Create Shortcut) option. The shortcut appears on your desktop.

If the “Desktop (Create Shortcut) option doesn’t display, then you can right-click the file or folder and click Create Shortcut on the sub-menu, then cut the shortcut from the folder and paste on the desktop.

Create Shortcut from application exe

You can create a shortcut of the application itself, but you have to locate the executable file for that program. For example the executable file for Word is Winword.exe. Find the exe file and right click to create a shortcut that exe file to the desktop and then the taskbar.

Create Shortcut via the Program Files folder

A final approach would be to simply browse to the OUTLOOK.EXE file in its installation directory and use the right click option there to create a Desktop shortcut. Below are the default installation directories for Microsoft Office:

• 32-bit Office on a 32-bit version of Windows

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office##

• 32-bit Office on a 64-bit version of Windows

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office (x86)\Office##

• 64-bit Office on a 64-bit version of Windows

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office##

Create a Shortcut from icons already on the Desktop

Right-click the desired icon (for folder, utility or application) on the desktop, click

‘create shortcut’

Create a Shortcut to a Website

On the desktop version of Internet Explorer, see the little icon in front of the website’s address in Internet Explorer’s Address Bar? Drag and drop that little icon to your desktop for quick access later.

Create a Shortcut to the Control Panel

Found a particularly helpful setting in the desktop’s Control Panel, the mammoth switch box in Windows 8? Then drag that helpful setting’s icon from the Control Panel onto your desktop. The icon turns into a shortcut for easy access.

Create a Shortcut to Disk drives

Open File Explorer from the Start screen. From the Navigation Pane along File Explorer’s left side, right-click the drive you want and choose Create Shortcut. Windows immediately places a shortcut to that drive on your desktop.

Here are some more tips for desktop shortcuts:

❖ For quick CD or DVD burning, put a shortcut to your disc drive on your desktop. Burning files to disc becomes as simple as dragging and dropping them onto the disc drive’s new shortcut. (Insert a blank disc into the disc drive’s tray, confirm the settings, and begin burning your disc.)

❖

❖ Want to send a desktop shortcut to the Start screen? (Only works on some items.) Right-click the desktop shortcut and choose Pin to Start; the item appears as a new Start screen tile. Click that tile on the Start screen to switch to the desktop, where your item awaits you.

❖

❖ Feel free to move shortcuts from place to place but don’t move the items they launch. If you do, the shortcut won’t be able to find the item, causing Windows to panic, searching (usually vainly) for the moved goods.

❖

❖ Want to see what program a shortcut will launch? Right-click the shortcut and click Open File Location (if available). The shortcut quickly takes you to its leader.

❖

❖ After you’ve stocked your taskbar with icons, pretend they’re numbered, from left to right. Pressing Windows+1 from the desktop opens the first program; Windows+2 opens the second, and so on. You’ve created automatic shortcuts!

Shortcuts Toolbar on the Desktop

You can also access the entire array of desktop features and accessories from the Taskbar.

Cycle back to the desktop by pressing the Windows key. Right-click the Taskbar, move to Toolbars at the top of the pop-up menu, and then select desktop. A toolbar icon for “Desktop” will appear on the Taskbar. Click the double arrow to the right of the icon, and you'll see options for an array of Windows applications and features, such as Computer, Control Panel, Network, Libraries, and all your personal folders. You can even drag the desktop toolbar to the left to expand it.

Shortcut to the Start Screen

Ultimately, you don't have to jump to the desktop anytime you want to open a non-Metro feature. Instead, you can pin your favorite non-Metro apps to the Metro screen itself. To do this in the desktop, right-click the icon for the application and choose the option to Pin to Start. To do this from the Metro UI, locate the item from the Apps menu or by searching for it. Right-click its icon and choose the Pin to Start option.

Create a Start Menu Toolbar

Right click on an empty space on your Task Bar and choose Toolbars-> New toolbar… and point it to the following location.

Note: Through Folder Options, enable showing of hidden system folders.

For current user:

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

For all users:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Step-by-step Instructions

Right-click on an empty space on your Taskbar and choose Toolbars>New toolbar

On File Explorers left pane, click Local disk (X) where X is the drive letter, then in the main File Explorer window, double-click ProgramData, double-click Microsoft, double-click Windows, SINGLE-CLICK Start Menu, then click Select Folder.

This will add a Toolbar icon called “Start Menu.” Click the double arrows at the end of the icon and a ‘programs’ listing appears. Hover the mouse over the listing and an XP type Menu pops up.

Add a Shortcut to the Start Menu Folder

❖ Create a shortcut to the desired app, folder or utility. Cut/copy its shortcut and place it in the startup folder – location cited above.

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