CertiGuide to A+ (Operating Systems)  9  Chapter 0000:  How to Get There       9  V  Desktop Navigation

Context Menus 1 Send To Desktop

A shortcut is a convenient path to another program or folder that’s usually more difficult to find. A simple means of making a shortcut to a folder or program on your desktop is by right clicking on the folder or program and using the pop up Context menu’s Create Shortcut option. (These are different from the menu shortcuts discussed later.) When you right-click the item, you’ll see a pop-up Context menu similar to the one shown in Figure 21.

Right-click on Create Shortcut, and Windows will place on your desktop a special “Shortcut to” icon.

A shortcut displays as a small icon with an arrow or pointer to let you know that it is a directional shortcut not the actual program or folder. A shortcut can safely be deleted without destroying the program or file that it points to.

Using the A+ folder created for the writing of this book as an example, a shortcut was created. The example shows the appearance of the folder before and after the shortcut was created. It is the same folder icon but now has a directional arrow. Shortcuts for programs will display as the program’s original icon, with a small directional arrow just like the folder shortcut icon.

Notice that we can rename a shortcut after we’ve created it, just like we can rename a file. The icon is renamed by right clicking on the icon. You might want to do this if you can come up with a better name for the item than the one Windows creates itself, which is usually “Shortcut to” followed by the original program or folder name. Just like deleting a shortcut doesn’t delete the program or folder it points to, renaming the shortcut doesn’t change the name of the folder or program. In our case above, the original folder is still called “A+”.

Context Menus 1 Send To Desktop