Creating Shortcuts to Files, Folders, and Programs

Shortcuts are icons on your desktop or the Quick Launch toolbar that are linked to programs, folders, and files in other locations. Many programs give you the option of creating one or more shortcuts during installation, or in some cases, they create the shortcuts without asking.

You can create your own shortcuts on the desktop, and you can add a shortcut to the Quick Launch toolbar by dragging it from the desktop to the toolbar. You can also delete any shortcut you don't want. Deleting a shortcut does not delete the program, folder, or file that the shortcut is linked to.

In this exercise, you will create one desktop shortcut to a program and another to a Web site. There are no practice files for this exercise.

1.	Right-click an open area near the center of the desktop, point to New, and then click Shortcut. The Create Shortcut wizard starts. Tip Wizards consist of a series of pages (similar to dialog boxes) that walk you through the steps necessary to accomplish a particular task. In this case, the wizard will prompt you for the information necessary to create a desktop shortcut.
2.	Click Browse. In the Browse for Files or Folders dialog box, click the arrow to the left of Computer to expand the folder. Then expand Local Disk (C:) and Program Files. Most programs create their own subfolder in the Program Files folder and then install most of the files they need to run in that subfolder.
3.	In the Select the target box, expand the Windows Sidebar folder, click the sidebar file, and then click OK. The path to the selected file appears in the Type The Location Of The Item box. [View full size image]
4.	In the Create Shortcut wizard, click Next. On the wizard's second (and final) page, click Finish to create a shortcut with the same name as the selected file. Tip You can change the name that appears below the shortcut by replacing the text in the Type A Name box with the name you want. After you create the shortcut, you can change its name by clicking its icon, clicking its name to select it for editing, and then typing the new name. A shortcut to the Windows Sidebar appears on the desktop in approximately the place you originally right-clicked. The shortcut icon matches the Windows Sidebar program icon. Tip You can change the size of your desktop icons by right-clicking the desktop, pointing to View, and then clicking Large Icons or Classic Icons. (The default selection is Medium Icons.)
5.	If the Windows Sidebar is displayed on the right side of your screen, right-click it (don't right-click a gadget), and click Close Sidebar. Then double-click the sidebar shortcut to test that it works. The Windows Sidebar opens.
6.	If you want, close the Windows Sidebar again. Then right-click another open area near the center of the desktop, point to New, and click Shortcut.
7.	In the Create Shortcut wizard, in the Type the location of the item box, type http://www.msn.com. Then click Next.
8.	In the Type a name for this shortcut box, replace New Internet Shortcut with MSN Web Site. Then click Finish to close the dialog box and create another shortcut. The Internet Explorer icon represents the Web site shortcut. [View full size image]
9.	Double-click the MSN Web Site shortcut to open the MSN Web site in your default Web browser.
10.	Click the Web browser window's Close button to close the window.