How to make a shortcut to a website on desktop

• March 30, 2021
• 
  Valiant Technology
• 3 min read

There are a lot of ways to make accessing your favorite websites more convenient such as bookmarking. If you only have a few sites you visit regularly creating a desktop shortcut may be an option. With a desktop shortcut you can access a specific URL quickly and conveniently using your default browser. This can work especially well for accessing browser based applications and those that have an offline option like Gmail. 

If you don’t have it memorized, start by copying the URL of the site you want to bookmark. Either right click in the address bar and click copy, or highlight the address and use the ctrl + c keyboard shortcut.

Next, minimize your windows so you only have the desktop in view. You can use the keyboard shortcut windows key + m to quickly minimize all in one shot. 

Right click anywhere on the desktop. From this menu go to new, and then select shortcut. 

This will bring up the shortcut creation window. Simply paste the address you copied into the space provided. You can right click in the box and select paste or use the keyboard shortcut ctrl + p. Then click next.

Now it’s time to label your shortcut. We recommend you don’t use the default name “new internet shortcut”. Instead, make it more specific, such as “Gmail” or “QuickBooks online” or “Valiant KBs” keeping in mind some longer names will be cut off unless selected. You can always change the name later.

Click finish and your shortcut will appear on your desktop. The icon will be that of your default browser. Just double click when you want to use it.

There are other methods of creating a shortcut on your desktop, but we have found this to be one of the most direct with a minimal amount of steps. We recommend keeping your desktop shortcuts to a minimum to help maintain organization.

Keyboard shortcuts used in this KB

Copy : Ctrl + c

Paste : ctrl + v

Minimize all windows : Windows + m

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