Create Shortcut On Desktop [HOT]

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Doreen Kaczmarek

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Jan 25, 2024, 5:53:13 PM1/25/24

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Is it possible to create a link to a note on your desktop? What about to a file in a note? I have an excel file I access regularly and right now I open Evernote, navigate to the note from my Evernote shortcuts and open the file in Excel by clicking on the file in my Evernote note.

I'm wondering if there's a way to create a desktop shortcut that will directly open the note (from which I can open the excel file) or even better, if I can create a desktop shortcut that will open the excel file from Evernote directly in Excel?

create shortcut on desktop

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No, the excel file can not be opened directly by the shortcut
The spreadsheet exists as a note attachment in the Evernote database
- it has to be exported as a OS file to be opened by Excel

Oops! missed that bit. ...Although if quick/ frequent access to that file is important you could consider saving it to a cloud server (Google Docs, et al) and adding a link to that file to your desktop. It'll open up immediately.

You can still have a link in your notes too, which will work from other locations; but the desktop link will be quick and easy from that device. (Evernote isn't always the best home for your files...)

I use @gazumped's desktop link for one very often used spreadsheet. The rest I access via the notes. Not that much trouble as I always have EN open on the right monitor of a two monitor set up so they are all a shortcut click away. FWIW.

Thanks for all of the tips. I explored the Google drive option, but found it isn't trivial to create a desktop shortcut that will open an excel file in Excel from Google drive without installing their backup and sync software that is a heavier solution that what I'm looking for. (or using the web-based Google sheets). I like how Evernote seamlessly lets you open an Excel file and save changes to it directly to the note. I haven't come across any issues with file corruption yet.

I opted to create Classic Note Links (right-click note to get menu & hold option for classic link to open the note in the application rather than the web client) and created an automator script to run a /bin/bash script like so: 'open evernote:///view/1234...' (replacing 1234 with the classic note link). I tried to take it a step further and write a script that would open the excel file, but had no luck, but this works for now.

This seems to be an issue with all apps installed via Windows store. You can no longer find "open file location" in the menu, which will take you to the exe file. From there you can create a shortcut.

In the case of application launchers, they're placed in /usr/share/applications/. The procedure is identical. We have several shortcut editor applications if you want advanced functionality, but I suspect the method above should suffice?

Usually when running the application or package you have installed, the icon of the application will appear in the launcher. That is to say, ubuntu has already automatically created a desktop file for the application. All you need to do is to find it and copy it to the desktop. More often than not it is in /usr/share/applications, as assumed by all other answers to this question, but sometimes it is in /.local/share/applications, or elsewhere you have no idea about. In the following I will add an icon for Qt Creator which is not in /usr/share/applications by default to the desktop to illustrate this method.

Windows 10 still lets you create desktop shortcuts to applications, files, folders, and even websites. Desktop icons may a little out of fashion, but they're still useful as part of a nicely organized desktop.

Once you've found it, drag and drop the application's shortcut from your Start menu to your desktop. You'll see the word "Link" appear when you're hovering over the desktop. Release the mouse button to create a link to the program, also known as a desktop shortcut.

To create a desktop shortcut to a file, first, locate the file somewhere in File Explorer. Hold down the Alt key on your keyboard and then drag and drop the file or folder to your desktop. The words "Create Link in Desktop" will appear. Release the mouse button to create the link.

You can use all the above methods to create shortcuts in other folders, too. Want to create a shortcut to a website or application in your Downloads folder? Go right ahead! Just drag and drop it to your desired location instead of the desktop.

The issue:In desktop linux, there's a layer of systems such as Freedesktop (an underlying layer of specifications and libraries), and desktop environments (DE) such as Gnome/KDE. Freedesktop specifies things like .desktop entries which supports links, desktop shortcuts, etc. Specific to Gnome (Ubuntu's default DE), at some point support for link .desktop entries were removed. See -/issues/448 for details.

Save links from Firefox using the quickcut extension: -US/firefox/addon/quickcut/ - the settings allow you to save either as .desktop or .webloc . Rather than deal with the fiasco of .desktop files (and due to having many .webloc shortcuts), I'm currently preferring saving as .webloc files with...

I was advised to start a new thread to an old question posted back in 2009, because a lot has changed since then and creating a desktop icon is supposed to be easy now.
I must admit I'm a new convert to Linux and have a lot to learn. That's why I'm here. I think the XFCE desktop envionment is one of the best set-ups of them all, but there are very simple tasks that are not intuitive at all or downright hard to accomplish.

One of those things is creating a desktop icon. I found out through much trial and error and by finally giving up and looking it up on the internet, that you have to "Create a Launcher", which sounds much different than adding a desktop shortcut. But it does make sense as to why it's called that... just threw me off.

I would like to look at and go through all the apps I have so that I can decide which ones I'd like on the desktop. Once I looked up where to find those, I right clicked on one that I wanted and I see the "send to desktop(create shortcut)" option. That's perfect! But not so fast.... Now I have a shortcut with a lock on it, and everytime I click it there's a warning saying:
Untrusted application launcher
"The desktop file "gcalctool.desktop" is in an insecure location and not marked as executable. If you do not trust this program, click Cancel.
Exec=gnome-calculator"
with a promt to "Launch Anyway" or "Cancel"

It's not very handy to add these shortcuts with the "create launcher" function because then I'm not choosing from a list... I have to start typing the app I want from memory, unless I "work-around" that by adding all the ones I want from the list of applications or look at the list in another open window, then I can see them and I start creating the real shortcuts with the create launcher function.
After that I still get the same error, but this time a 3rd option is on the promt: "Mark Executable" ...well I'm glad that was there... now it's functional.

But it IS easy to create a desktop shortcut for one of your apps. Just open your menu, move your mouse cursor over the app, hold your left mouse button down, move your mouse cursor to the desktop, and let go of the button. I believe this process is known as "click and drag," "drag it to the desktop," something like that.

BTW on my computer, even when I drag and drop an app from the applications menu to the desktop to make the shortcut, it still has the error message and I have to mark it as executable. Maybe that's a security thing...

I really kind of like access to that "usr/shared/applications" folder. I haven't yet figured out if there's a way to make a desktop shortcut for it. Since it's 'root' permission, I would bet I have to go to the terminal and use a sudo command...

If you want to make a specific app appear in your menu, you can create a .desktop file in "/.local/share/applications" (No need for root permissions). Xubuntu 14.04 comes with pre-installed app called "menulibre". You can easily create or modify existing launchers with GUI interface. And why would you want to access "/usr/share/applications" when all of those apps are listed in your menu by category?

If you want to make a link to a folder that doesn't have a lock, you can create a launcher like this. If you want to access this launcher from your menu, you have to copy the file in "/.local/share/applications".

Actually the folder "/usr/share/applications" has more. It is full of symbolic links to all your executables including each executable command found inside places like the "Settings Manager". While technically those are accessable in the menu by openning the menu, clicking on Settings Manager, then selecting an app (for example "Appearance"), there's not any drag and drop functionality to create a launcher to "Appearance" on the desktop from Settings Manager. But inside "/usr/share/applications" there is, and I can save 2 steps and have a launcher that goes directly to "Appearance". Which I have figured out how to do now.

The most kind way to do this would be to onboard the user and ask if they want any shortcuts the first time they launch the app. Apple recommends you have a very light onboarding, so even this is against "best practice" but I would see it as the best way to make an alias if you feel it's the right call for the majority of the users of your app.