How To Create Skype Shortcut On Desktop Windows 10

I don't like the start screen and want to launch programs like Skype from Desktop shortcuts, like in earlier Windows versions. But how do I add desktop shortcuts in Windows 10?

My initial reaction to your question was "it's easy, just right click on the program icon and choose "Create Shortcut", but upon trying to do it myself, turn out that it's nowhere near that easy. In fact, it's clear from figuring out a solution that Microsoft really, really wants you to get used to the Start screen or the Win10.1 Start menu, not create Desktop shortcuts. But if you prefer apps to live on your Desktop as they have for the entire history of Microsoft Windows, I got your back.

However, be warned: for this particular solution you're going to be doing a wee bit of Windows hacking – sort of – and launching a view that isn't usually part of a user's account setup or configuration. I'll step you through the process, though, so no worries.

Let's get started. The logical place to put this feature would be on the context menu you get when you right click on a program or app on the Start menu:

create win10 desktop shortcut

No such luck. You can pin the app to your Start tiles or, if you right click on the icon when it's running, pin it to the TaskBar, but to create a Desktop Shortcut? For that we're going to need to get to the Windows command line.

In the search box, enter "run":

win10 run command line

There ya go, click or tap to choose the Desktop app "Run", as highlighted above.

It launches a small box without much in the way of suggestions on how to use it. What you'll want to do is type in – exactly as shown here – the sequence "shell:AppsFolder". Make sure you have no space after the colon. It'll look like this:

win10 run box - shell:appsfolder

Looks exactly like what I show? Great.

Click on "OK to open up that particular view of your Windows 10 system:

win10 windows 10 apps program folder window

So many programs, so little clue about them in Windows 10. You can delete from this point, but I will warn you that using Uninstall from the Settings is a much smarter and safer strategy.

Find the particular program you want to drop on your desktop with a shortcut, like Skype, and right click. Here's what you'll see:

right click context menu win10 apps folder programs

There's that pesky option! Yay! Click on "Create shortcut", as highlighted above.

It'll generate an error message, which is fine:

create shortcut on desktop - win10

In fact, that's exactly what you want to do! Click "Yes" to proceed and a shortcut for your favorite program will instantly appear on your Windows 10 desktop, ready to click and use:

skype desktop shortcut win10 windows 10

It is, however, a whole lot of work to create these desktop shortcuts, so this might be a page worth bookmarking for future reference. But now you know the Windows expert solution for creating program desktop shortcuts in Microsoft Windows 10!

While you're here, I invite you to check out the extensive Windows help on the site too. Thanks!

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