Windows XP in a Nutshell, Second Edition

Name

Shortcuts

Synopsis

A Shortcut is a link to a program, file, folder, drive, system object, printer, or URL. Shortcuts are actually small files that come in two flavors: Windows Shortcuts (.lnk) and Internet Shortcuts (.url). (See Figure 3-24.)

Figure 3-26. A standard shortcut icon is distinguishable from other icons by the little curved arrow

While you can start a program or open a folder by double-clicking on its icon on the Desktop or selecting its icon in the Start menu, odds are that application is stored elsewhere and you’re using a shortcut only to access the application executable. If you find that there’s a program, document, folder, or web site you use often, it’s easy to create a shortcut to the object.

There are several ways to create a shortcut:

• Use the Explorer to navigate to the directory where the program’s executable (.exe) is stored; if the program is a Windows component (listed in Chapter 4), it’s executable is probably in the \Windows\System32 folder. Otherwise, the executable is probably located in a subfolder of \Program Files. Once you’ve located the .exe file, use the right mouse button to drag it to the location of your choice (typically the Desktop or the Start menu) and select “Create shortcut here” from the context menu that appears. The same procedure works for folders, drives, and documents, as well. In some earlier versions of Windows, dragging an