The metro or modern apps introduced with Windows 8 were not accessible from the desktop environment. One had to switch to the Start screen in order to launch an app as Windows 8 didn’t let users create app shortcuts on the desktop.
Though Windows 8.1 was slightly better for desktop users, it was still lacking the ability to create desktop shortcuts for metro apps installed from the Store. While Windows 8.1 let users pin apps to the taskbar, it was not possible to have desktop shortcuts of apps.
Things have changed dramatically with Windows 10. You can launch apps right from the Start menu and resize them just like traditional programs developed for the desktop environment.
While playing with the new Start menu in Windows 10, I noticed that we can now create app shortcuts on the desktop without the help of third-party utilities. No, you don’t get a Send to desktop or Create shortcut option when you right-click on an app in the Start menu but you can follow the given below instructions to create shortcuts of your favourite Metro, Modern or Universal apps on the desktop.
Desktop shortcuts for modern apps
NOTE: If you have enabled the Start screen in Windows 10, you need to turn on the Start menu in order to create desktop shortcuts for apps. To turn on Start menu, open Taskbar and navigation properties, switch to the Start menu tab and then uncheck the option labelled Use the start menu instead of the Start screen before clicking the Apply button.
Step 1: Open the Start menu and navigate to the app that you would like to have on your desktop as a shortcut.
Step 2: Simply drag-and-drop the app to the desktop area to create shortcut of the app on your Windows 10 desktop.
That’s it!
Tip: You can turn off this drag-and-drop behaviour if you wish to do so. For that, follow the given below instructions:
Turn off dragging and dropping in Start menu
Step 1: open Taskbar and navigation properties dialog by right-clicking on the empty space of the taskbar and then clicking Properties.
Step 2: Switch to the Start menu tab, click Customize button.
Step 3: Here, look for the option labelled “Enable context menus and dragging and dropping” and uncheck to the same. That’s it!
When drag and drop behaviour is turned off for the Start menu, you won’t be able create desktop shortcuts for modern or universal apps.
How to pin Recycle Bin to the taskbar in Windows 10 guide might also interest you.
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Suzanne Schilling says
I have an account with HomeAway, a owners property rental website that books rentals for me. I would like to know how to copy their app to my windows 10 desktop
Shmuel says
Thanks for the article.
Just one important clarification: You cannot do this by clicking the Start button, typing the name of the app, then dragging and dropping the icon. You can only do this by clicking the Start button, searching for the app in the list, and dragging and dropping that icon.
Charley says
To create a shortcut on Win10:
On screen saver, or minimize all apps, Right Click.
Place pointer on NEW.
Select SHORTCUT to the right….box with an arrow in it.
Type location of item…either file or address loc, ie.
Click NEXT.
Type the name of your short cut.
Click finish.
The shortcut with the name you selected will appear on the screen.
Bobby Blue says
Most of these statements are blatant lies.
Karen S Davis says
Am I confused or did the creators of Windows 10 take a more or less easy to understand system such as Windows 7 I’ll say (the last really understandable system) and turn it into a bunch of complicated crap that they probably don’t even understand. If I can’t understand it and I used to be a programmer and owned my own accounting firm then heaven help the poor student or housewife that has had no training whatsoever. They don’t have the slightest chance of figuring Window’s 10 out. Needless to say I am not happy with and I doubt there are many people that are.
George Mcgarvey says
to pace icons on desktop seems impossible on widows 10. On windows 7 it was easy. fix 10 clicking on mouse and ad icon
Linda Retzlaff says
I have tried and tried to get a shortcut. I know I am no computer genius but making a shortcut should not be this hard when it was so easy before. Do not like Windows 10 at all!
john says
once again the help for icons was useless. I got to the second step and the option was not even listed. no “start menu’ wording at all. I just got this new tower and it was loaded with windows 10. what a piece of crap. I had windows 10 on my old system for 3 days then removed the worthless piece of free crap.
Jon says
We created a dialup for a VPN but so far can only launch it by going through the Start Menu – Is there a way of putting the Dial Up Connection on the Desktop or on the task bar or anywhere in fact to save the chore…
omkar says
drag from start menu and drop on desktop thats it
Charles Stuart says
I cannot fathom startup menu to get apps to appear. My whole system is running at half to a third of the speed before the (automatic and unwanted) Windows 10 upgrade barged its way in
K Dunipace says
I don’t claim to be an expert, to understand all the variations above, or that my solution will work for all. I generally agree that Windows 10 is so much more complicated than Windows 7, that many things that were easy (and had gotten sort of intuitive) in Windows 7 are now more complicated and (at least) temporarily unintuitive. “Official” Microsoft instructions are essentially non-existent, so we are all stuck with exchanging amateur adventures that aren’t particularly general and often now clearly expressed (mine included).
My interest was to get old-fashioned ‘programs ‘ (like MS Word) to have shortcuts on the desktop like W7.
What I finally found to work for MS Word):
Open Windows Explorer (sometimes still identified as WE, now often called File Explorer), probably an icon on the task bar.
Click on This PC
Click on Local Disk C: drive
Click on Program Files (possibly Program Files (x86) for some other programs)
Scroll to desired program listing (will be three “layers” in this example, e.g. MS Office, then MS Word, then Office 14)
Select and open program folder (office 14)
Select, then drag and drop, icon for the executable program (WINWORD.exe).
Done!
I will guess that if you can search and find the “title” for a similar “executable” file for websites, apps, etc., the similar last step will work.
I’m probably just simple-minded, but I think that process is complicated enough that MS should describe it somewhere in Cortana’s memory with a high enough priority that it would show up near the top of queries related to desktop, shortcuts, and W10.
Dianne says
So far, I’m not;impressed with windows 10. Too many of my “things ” have disappeared and there doesn’t seem to be an easy place to search for them. When I read the above info to find out how to make a shortcut to my desktop, I might have well been reading a foreign language. Come on, guys, from the beginning, windows was suppose to be easier to operate than the other operating systems. What happened?
Myrtle says
There is no tab for the start menu
mr. mcdonagh says
wow , everything einekleinestimme said is correct and i looked three times . created a desktop shortcut is required to operate . going to abandon this “edge” and use firefox which allows shortcuts to desktop. the stat menu with the tiles waste time .
john timothy says
you’re mad. you can not create a shortcut for a metro (store) app in the start menu to appear on the desktop in windows 10. at least not the way you described. first of all, both start menu & start screen are already enabled. second, when you bring up the properties window from the taskbar, you get a “Taskbar and Start Menu Properties” box that does not contain a start menu tab, only Taskbar, Navigation, Toolbars. third, even if there were a start menu tab and you could check “use the start menu…”, it’d be futile, once you try dragging an app from the start menu you aren’t able to drop it on the desktop because of the start screen filling the other side of the screen. fourth, did i say you were mad? just once it’d be nice if i found an answer that was right.
einekleinestimme says
Thank you– It is a pleasure to find answers to using software quickly. There is a universe of difference between the knowledge base of IT professionals for computers in software and hardware issues AND those of us with limited computer savvy. You might also desire to modify your suggestions with links to YouTube / Video media to illustrate various instructions which may be more complex or that require layers of actions. Thanks Again.
AMRooke says
The option to “uncheck the option labelled Use the start menu instead of the Start screen” does not exist with build 9926, and the Start Menu / Customize button is greyed out . . . Still working on how to setup Modern apps to run on startup by user, I was planning on just creating a shortcut and then moving it to the user’s startup folder. I’m open to suggestions . . .