How do you move icons from Start to Desktop?

crimson

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I like W8 interface alot, but certain things don't seem to work.

Like normally, you could go into the Start menu, and copy/move/edit/delete icons. But In W8, I don't see any way of doing this. The only options they give you is to pin.

So the "All Programs" Menu in W8 is the Apps menu. And there doesn't seem to be a way to drag any of those shortcuts onto the desktop. There doesn't seem to be away to open file location of any of these shortcuts either.

What am I supposed to do?
 

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Pin to taskbar doesn't work. It just sticks it onto the taskbar. And I had to take everything that was pinned off because it would stack it up in the pin icon. Like for example if I have 2 different Notepad *.txt documents open. Each one would show separately on the taskbar as long as it's set to not combine. However if Notepad is pinned onto the taskbar, no matter how many are open it will be pinned on there. And the same thing goes for multiple browser windows. And everything gets convoluted.

OK I got option to open file location from the apps menu. I found where everything is:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
and
C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
 

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As far as I know you can't put shortcuts to Meter Apps on the desktop. If you open file explorer and look under This PC, you should see a Desktop folder. You can put shortcuts in there and they will then show up on your desktop.
 

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No kidding. The original question was about the fact that it won't work. You can't move any of the shortcuts. From the Start menu. You have to go into the system to find them. Which is completely different from how the previous menu used to function.
 

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It takes a couple of clicks but it can be done for Desktop programs. Right click a tile on the Start Screen and select open file location. Then right click the programs icon and select send to, Desktop (create shortcut). True Metro Apps will not have the open file location option and thus cannot be pinned to the Desktop. Personally I don't pin any shortcuts to my desktop, I have it set to not show shortcuts. The Start Screen does the same thing, your just clicking a tile instead of a shortcut. You can pin Metro apps to the taskbar which is what I do. The stuff I use everyday is pinned to my taskbar. Other programs that I use occasionally are on my main Start Screen. Everything else is on the All Apps screen. Microsoft is trying to meld the Desktop environment and the Metro environment. Who knows update 2 may get you what you want.
 

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Hi there

YOU CAN pin Metro apps to the desktop too (and create short cuts so you can create custom toolbars too)

From CMD Mode run this command :

explorer shell:Appsfolder

Then from the Window press F10 or choose View ==>choose details and click the 3 boxes Name, Long Display name, AppuserModelID

now choose display DETAILS in the file explorer and you'll see the extra columns including the APPuserModelID


From this point it's now easy -- you simply right mouse click on your desktop and create shortcut =>new

type in the script - for example the Sports application

explorer shell:Appsfolder\Microsoft.BingSports_8wekyb3d8bbwe!AppexSports

This will appear on your desktop -- I need to sort out sensible icons for these but it works !!
Here's a longer description I made with screenshots.

http://www.eightforums.com/general-...ps-desktop-taskbar-create-cascading-menu.html

However what I haven't been able to get is the CORRECT ICON for the metro apps - so I've just used any old icon.

Cheers
jimbo
 

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I like W8 interface alot, but certain things don't seem to work.

Like normally, you could go into the Start menu, and copy/move/edit/delete icons. But In W8, I don't see any way of doing this. The only options they give you is to pin.

So the "All Programs" Menu in W8 is the Apps menu. And there doesn't seem to be a way to drag any of those shortcuts onto the desktop. There doesn't seem to be away to open file location of any of these shortcuts either.

What am I supposed to do?

Hello Crimson,

If you mean for modern apps, then you could use the method in the tutorial below to create desktop shortcuts for them. :)

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/49207-app-shortcuts-create-windows-8-a.html
 

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Hi there

It looks though you have to use Custom Icons as per Brinks tutorials : for example

..................4. Click/tap on the Download button below to download a custom Finance.ico file to use for this shortcut. Unblock the .ico file, then move it to where you would like to keep it saved at. ..................


I can't see where the ones from the tiles are located (If indeed they use .ICO files at all).

You could probably cut and paste from the tiles or the Metro app itself (Before it opens and starts) (take a PRT SCREEN, copy into say WORD / WORDPAD, snipping tool to copy the Tile, then mess around with the .PNG file saved to create the ICON might work.

Cheers
jimbo


 

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Wow OK thanks. Because the folders I found didn't have all the shortcuts. That will work, but that's an over complicated way of doing things. How do you fix it so you can just drag and create shortcuts from whatever is in your main App menu under the start menu? Because that area is where all of your shortcuts are. That's basically the "All Programs" section from Windows 7.
 

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Hi there

For Metro I don't think you can do it with a quick drag 'n drop. You CAN save the shortcuts into a file so you don't have to keep re-creating them again though -- The file contains your Link files which you can copy straight to your desktop etc etc.

@ Crimson and Brink

If you want to create the Identical Icons that the Metro apps use or "Roll your Own" from Image files then my post here in this section.

http://www.eightforums.com/customization/50794-custom-icons-png-including-icons-metro-apps.html

To remove the arrows from the icons I believe Brink has a tutorial on that too -- for myself I don't mind the small little arrow in the ICON on the desktop -- your choice of course.

Cheers
jimbo
 

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    SSD's * 3 (Samsung 840 series) 250 GB
    2 X 3 TB sata
    5 X 1 TB sata
    Internet Speed
    0.12 GB/s (120Mb/s)
Wow OK thanks. Because the folders I found didn't have all the shortcuts. That will work, but that's an over complicated way of doing things. How do you fix it so you can just drag and create shortcuts from whatever is in your main App menu under the start menu? Because that area is where all of your shortcuts are. That's basically the "All Programs" section from Windows 7.

For desktop apps, you can just right click on them, click on "Open File Location", and copy the shortcut to where you like.

For modern apps, we have to do what was posted above to create shortcuts for them to use where we like. The "Related Tutorials" links at the bottom of the tutorial have pre-made shortcuts available for all of the default modern apps to help though. :)

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/49207-app-shortcuts-create-windows-8-a.html
 

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For modern apps, we have to do what was posted above to create shortcuts for them to use where we like.

@ Shawn: Just out of curiosity, do you have a way to pin 'em to the Navigation Pane?
 

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For modern apps, we have to do what was posted above to create shortcuts for them to use where we like.

@ Shawn: Just out of curiosity, do you have a way to pin 'em to the Navigation Pane?

Only folder or drive locations can be added to the navigation pane, but I suppose that you could add a folder to Favorites that contains all the app shortcuts to open them from.

Favorites - Links - Add or Remove in Navigation Pane - Windows 7 Help Forums
 

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    64-bit Windows 10
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    Custom self built
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    Intel i7-8700K OC'd to 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    OCZ Series Gold OCZZ1000M 1000W
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    Internet Explorer 11
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    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
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