How To Create a Microsoft Edge Desktop Shortcut

Creating a Microsoft Edge desktop shortcut in Windows 10 is somehow different from creating a shortcut with Internet Explorer. But before I continue, I should point out that there are 2 distinct interpretations of creating a Microsoft Edge shortcut on your desktop.

• A desktop shortcut to launch Microsoft Edge and display your Edge “start page”
• A desktop shortcut to launch Microsoft Edge and display a specific website, which is not your Edge start page

I’ll explain both scenario’s below, so you’ll have a step-by-step guide for each scenario.

Create A Microsoft Edge Desktop Shortcut To Open With The Start Page

To create a Microsoft Edge desktop shortcut, right-click an empty spot on your desktop and select “New” and then select “Shortcut”.

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Windows will then open the create shortcut wizard and will prompt you to type the location of the item. In the input field for the location of the item, type the following text (you can copy / paste the line below)

%windir%\explorer.exe shell:Appsfolder\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe!MicrosoftEdge

and click next.

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In the next screen, the wizard prompts “What would you like to name the shortcut?”

Type “Microsoft Edge” (without the quotes) in the name input field and click finish.

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Your new Microsoft Edge desktop shortcut will now appear, but it will probably not look like a Microsoft Edge shortcut.

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The icon can easily be changed, so right-click your new desktop icon and select properties.

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Then, in your Microsoft Edge properties window, click the “Change icon” button.

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In the field that says “Look for icons in this file, copy and paste the next line of text and click ok

%windir%\SystemApps\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe\MicrosoftEdge.exe

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The change icon dialog will ask you to select an icon from the list. There will only be one icon to pick, so select the Microsoft Edge icon and click ok.

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Then, after returning to the Microsoft Edge properties window, click ok to complete your icon.

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You will now have a Microsoft Edge desktop icon that will launch your Edge browser when double-clicked upon.

Double-clicking the icon will indeed open Microsoft Edge with your current setting for the start page in Microsoft Edge.

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Create A Microsoft Edge Dekstop Shortcut To Open With A Specific Web Page

This is a slightly different scenario from above, because now you will create a Microsoft Edge desktop shortcut to launch Microsoft Edge with a specific web page. For instance, if you are surfing the web and you visit a certain page or website quite frequently, you might want to create a desktop icon that you can click and that will immediately take you to the desired page.

With Internet Explorer this used to be pretty simple. On any given page, you can simply right-click with your mouse anywhere on an empty spot in the page (so not on an image or so), select “Create shortcut” from the menu and voilà, your desktop shortcut to that page is ready.

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Now, with Microsoft Edge, if you right-click on a page, all you get is “Select all, Inspect element and View Source”, which is not going to be very helpful in creating your Microsoft Edge desktop shortcut.

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Instead, click in Microsoft Edge’s address bar while you are on the page that you want to create a shortcut for (one single click).

That will get you the web url (address) of the page you are currently looking at, selected and marked in blue.

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Now, on this selection, right-click with your mouse and select “copy”.

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Then, press the Windows key + d on your keyboard to return to your desktop.

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On your desktop, right-click in an empty spot and select “New” and “Shortcut”.

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In the field underneath where it says “Type the location of the item”, right-click with your mouse and select paste.

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Then click next to continue.

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In the next screen, enter a recognizable name for your shortcut and click finish to complete the creation of your new shortcut.

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You’ll now have a new shortcut on your desktop that you can use to open Microsoft Edge at the web page you want.

Shortcut Does Not Open With Microsoft Edge?

In some cases you might notice that your new shortcut does not open with Microsoft Edge, but with another browser. If you want it to open with Edge, then you need to check your default programs.

To do so, press the Windows key + x on your keyboard to open the Windows 10 Quick Access menu.

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In the Quick Access menu, select “Control Panel”.

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In Control Panel, make sure that “View by category” is selected and then select “Programs”.

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Next, click “Set your default programs”.

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In the programs list, select Microsoft Edge and then click the “Set this program as default” setting. Of course you can use this method to define any other browser in your programs list as your default browser.

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From then on, your desktop internet shortcuts will open with the default browser of your choice.

Alternative Method To Create A Microsoft Edge Web Shortcut

Some people have commented that the method to create a new web shortcut is a bit cumbersome, so here is an alternative method for creating a shortcut that will open on the page of your preference.

If you are on the specific page for which you want to create a shortcut and you are looking at that page with your Microsoft Edge browser, click in the three dots in the upper-right corner of your Edge window and select “Open with Internet Explorer”.

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Now the page will also open in Internet Explorer and from there you can simply right-click anywhere in the page and select “Create shortcut”.

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This method will also create a shortcut on your desktop and even though it was created from within Internet Explorer, as long as Microsoft Edge is set as your default browser, clicking the shortcut will open the web page with Edge.