Windows 95 - Creating Shortcuts on the Desktop

CREATING SHORTCUTS ON THE DESKTOP

Using the START – PROGRAMS – ACCESSORIES – GAMES - SOLITAIRE method, can take a long time to get to the desired program. There is a quicker way to do this, by creating shortcuts on your desktop.

Notice the desktop already has several icons pointing to programs directly. We are going to create another one to show you how easily you can do this yourself. This is just one method being shown. The additional Windows handout shows a couple of different ways.

We are going to use FIND, on the Start Menu to create a shortcut. Whenever a program is installed in Windows95, a shortcut file will be added to the Windows directory. So to add a program name to the desktop, we need to search the C: Drive for the shortcut file for the program.

Let's add the Solitaire icon to our desktop – so we can practice mouse movements!!

Select START, FIND, FILES OR FOLDERS.

At the Name and Location options do the following to locate the Solitaire game:

1. "LOOK IN" = C: Drive

2. "Include Subfolders" is checked

3. "NAMED" = SOL and press enter or the "Find Now" button..

You will see the program searching the entire drive, and listing files that match the criteria. Not all programs have to do with Solitaire, like Solutions, Solver, etc.

Ideally, we want to find the "Shortcut" file, not the .EXE file. So look in the list of files for the Solitaire game, whose file type is Shortcut.

1. Click once on the file name showing the shortcut for Solitaire to select it.

2. Then do an opposite side mouse click to bring up the quick menu.

3. One item on the quick menu is to "Create Shortcut". If you select this option (regular mouse click), you will get an error saying the program cannot create a shortcut here, but can on the desktop. Select Yes to allow this.

Exit FIND, go back to the desktop. You should have an icon for Solitaire.