Windows Desktop for any version of Windows is the place where we keep shortcuts to launch programs that we use very often. For example, on a typical Windows 11 system, we have shortcuts for web browsers, for websites, for Office products (like Microsoft Word), for games and more.
What kind of shortcuts we are likely to find on a Windows PC’s desktop depends on what they do on that computer and how they use it. For example, an office PC is likely to have shortcuts to accounting software, Microsoft Office, email software, printing tools and more. On the other hand, we will find shortcuts to a number of games on a gaming computer.
Here is how you can create a new desktop shortcut to any program or website easily using Windows PowerShell:
- Right-click on the Windows Desktop and choose Open in Windows Terminal. Alternatively, you can also press Win+X and then choose Windows Terminal. If you have installed the PowerShell from GitHub then you can access it through the Start menu as well.
- Open Windows Notepad and copy/paste the following lines in it:
- Edit the name of the shortcut (Notepad.lnk) and the target path (C:\Windows\Notepad.exe) to your own program shortcut requirements.
- Copy the edited text and paste it in Windows Terminal. It will warn you that you are pasting multiple lines, choose yes to continue. Press Enter again in the Windows Terminal.
- Now you have the shortcut ready on your desktop. You can close the windows opened during this process.
The benefit of using this method is that you can save it in form of a PowerShell script and later can use it to automatically create shortcuts at will. You can create multiple shortcuts using this method in just a fraction of a second. We can save the script in a file such as “shortcuts.ps1” and then invoke it just by double-clicking on it.