Create a desktop shortcut to a Windows 8 App

16.09.2014

ross

In Tips & Advice

Love them or hate them, Windows 8-style Apps are here to stay. One drawback is that you may wish to launch these apps without going to the Apps screen, but there is no obvious way to do this without pinning them to the Start menu or the Taskbar. I thought I'd show you how! 

1. First of all press and hold the Windows Key and the letter R together

2. In the box that loads type the following: Explorer shell:AppsFolder

3. The following folder will open: *NOTE* Do not touch anything in here, Do not change the view, and do not click on items.

Just press the F10 key and a menu should appear like so:

4. In the menu choose: View -> Choose details.

5. In the next box, tick AppUserModelId:

6. Now switch the view to Details and you should notice a new column, AppUserModelId

7. Scroll to the desired app, for example Photos, and note the AppUserModelId value.

8. Right click the desktop and select Create Shortcut

9. Create a new shortcut with the following target:
Explorer shell:AppsFolder\microsoft.windowsphotos_8wekyb3d8bbwe!Microsoft.WindowsLiveModernPhotos

10. Specify the name and icon for the shortcut you have created and click Finish:

All done! Now you can use the shortcut you just created to launch the Photos app.

You may want to set an appropriate icon for the new shortcut, to do this:

1. Right click the icon and select Properties

2. Click Change Icon

3. Paste the following text into the top box and press enter %windir%\System32\imageres.dll

4. Select your icon and press OK

Great, now you have lovely shortcut with a great Windows 8 icon!