A Deficiency in Some Browsers

[Dragon Drop]

With support for Internet Explorer dwindling (soon you won't be able to view YouTube in IE, for example) I'm looking for another browser to use. I've installed Edge, Chrome and Firefox. But I have a problem with them.

In IE, you can right-click on any web page and select "Create Shortcut" and the resulting shortcut icon will open that page directly, so I can have a separate icon on my desktop for any particular page that I often use. Thus, on this site, I sometimes create a shortcut to a particular thread so I can check it for replies with one click. I want to do the same with these other browsers, but they don't seem to have any such capability -- they can go to a site's home page, but not to a page you specify.

I've even tried creating the shortcuts myself -- for example, if I open YouTube in IE and type "Judge Judy" in the search bar, the address bar then shows

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=judge+judy

and that's what lands in the "target" box of a shortcut created from that page. But if I try to type that into the target box of an Edge, Chrome, or Firefox shortcut, they say "this address is not valid". Apparently they don't know how to parse the last part of the address, i.e. the part beginning with the question mark.

Does anybody know of any way to create a shortcut icon that will directly open a specified page in those browsers? After all, if those browsers are going to replace IE, they ought to do the same things that IE can do.

 

[Bree]

I've even tried creating the shortcuts myself -- for example, if I open YouTube in IE and type "Judge Judy" in the search bar, the address bar then shows

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=judge+judy

and that's what lands in the "target" box of a shortcut created from that page. But if I try to type that into the target box of an Edge, Chrome, or Firefox shortcut, they say "this address is not valid".

I don't understand what you mean by "...type that into the target box of an Edge, Chrome, or Firefox shortcut".

What you should do is right-click on the Desktop, select New > Shortcut then type it into that box. This shortcut will open your default browser at the page you want. I've tested it with the example you gave above and it works correctly with Firefox as my default browser (as it should whatever browser you set as default).

 

[Dragon Drop]

OK, now I get it -- I didn't know that you have to set it as the default browser first. But still, that's a lot of trouble you have to take to create a shortcut. What I meant by "target box" is the same box that you're referring to. But in IE, the "Create Shortcut" option is right there in the "right-click menu" so you don't have to type anything into a box. I like Firefox, but it doesn't have that option in any of its menus.

 

[Bree]

...I like Firefox, but it doesn't have that option in any of its menus.

This is the simplest way to create a desktop shortcut in Firefox.

Create a desktop shortcut to a website | Firefox Help

 

[Dragon Drop]

Thanks, now I'm all set!

 

[Bree]

 

[Dragon Drop]

Guess what ...... I found a "Create Shortcut" option in Google Chrome -- but when you use it, it doesn't create an Internet shortcut. Instead, it creates a shortcut to the Chrome program itself, with parameters that send it to the web page that you want. So when you use that shortcut, the page will always open in Chrome -- even if it ISN'T your default browser! One more example of how software makers try to force us to use their products.

But I'm now using Firefox and creating shortcuts in the way that Bree suggested above. So Google doesn't bother me!