If you aren’t a fan of scrolling your pointer over to the lower right corner of your monitor to show the desktop, we have a cool tweak that will allow you to add the Show Desktop icon to the Quick Launch bar or anywhere on your Taskbar.
![Icons Icons](https://winaero.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Windows-10-quick-launch-shortcut-icon.png)
If you want to easily get access to the Desktop in Windows 7, 8, or 10, you’ve undoubtedly noticed they moved the Show Desktop to the lower right corner of the screen. This can be annoying if you have a dual monitors, or even a large monitor.
Quick Launch For Windows10
There are a couple of ways you can make the Show Desktop icon more accessible. We’ll take a look at each and you can choose which method works best for you. We show both methods in Windows 10, but they will also work in Windows 7 and 8.
Page 1 of 2 - Windows 10 Quick Launch Icons Disappear Upon Reboot - posted in Windows 10 Support: I did a clean install, using the Media Creation Tool, of Windows 10 Pro x64 on my Maingear Shift. How to enable Quick Launch in Windows 10 Even if you set pinned icons to a small size, they are still spaced too far apart from one another. The taskbar mixes running programs with non-running ones, whereas if you use the Quick Launch toolbar. Quick Launch has a more customizable appearance. How do I change the icons in the Windows Quick Launch? Right-click on an empty portion of the Quick Launch bar. After right-clicking the Quick Launch bar click Open Folder, which opens. After the Quick Launch bar window is open, right-click the icon you want to change. Click Properties. In Windows 10, by default, taskbar icons are aligned to the left. That means, when you launch programs or apps, icons are organized on the taskbar from left to the right. There are users who prefer to align icons to the center of the taskbar instead of the default aligned to the left. See All Icons on the Quick Launch Bar. The handle on the right is the handle for the next toolbar over, usually the taskbar. By sliding the handle to the right, you make the Quick Launch bar longer, allowing more room for the icons. Slide the handle over until all the icons appear on the Quick Launch bar and the little chevron thing disappears. 3: This will create a “Quick Launch” on your taskbar of Windows 10. You can click on the “Double Arrows” on the quick launch to view the icons within it. Removing the Quick Launch Icon. Alternatively, if you desire to remove the quick launch from the taskbar, Right-click anywhere on the taskbar.
How to Put the Show Desktop Icon Back to Where it Used to Be by Adding Back the Quick Launch Bar
RELATED:How to Bring Back the Quick Launch Bar in Windows 7, 8, or 10
The first method of moving the Show Desktop icon is to add back the Quick Launch bar to the Taskbar. The Quick Launch bar contains a Show Desktop option, so once you follow the steps in our article to bring back the Quick Launch bar, you should see the Show Desktop icon on the left side of the Taskbar. If you don’t, the article also describes how to move icons on the Quick Launch bar.
This method will “kill two birds with one stone” by getting the Quick Launch bar and the Show Desktop icon back where they used to be in Windows.
How to Pin the Show Desktop Icon to the Taskbar
If you don’t want the Quick Launch bar back, you could pin the icon to the Taskbar instead. Unfortunately, the process isn’t as easy as a simple drag and drop, but there is an easy workaround.
Right-click on any empty area of the desktop and go to New > Text Document.
Rename the shortcut to
Show Desktop.exe
.
NOTE: You will need to have file extensions showing in order for this to work.
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The following warning dialog box displays because you are changing the extension on the shortcut. Click the “Yes” button to change the name and extension on the shortcut.
Right-click on the dummy .exe file you just made and select “Pin to taskbar” from the popup menu.
Create a new text file in Notepad, or your favorite text editor, and copy and paste the following code into the new file.
Press Ctrl+S to save the file. In the Save As dialog box, navigate to the following folder and make sure you select “All Files (*.*)” from the “Save as type” dropdown.
Replace
<user name>
with your Windows user name.
NOTE: If you don’t see the AppData folder, you must check the “Show hidden files, folders, and drives” box on the View tab on the Folder Options dialog box.
Type
Show Desktop.scf
in the “File name” box and click the “Save” button.
Close Notepad (or your favorite text editor) by clicking the “X” button in the upper-right corner of the window.
Now, we’re going to edit the properties of the shortcut we pinned to the Taskbar. Right-click on the
Show Desktop.exe
icon, right-click again on the “Show Desktop” option on the popup menu, and then select “Properties from the second popup menu.
On the Properties dialog box, enter the following path into the Target box on the Shortcut tab, making sure to keep the quotes around the full path. The quotes are required because there are spaces in the path.
Again, replace
<user name>
with your user name.
Don’t close the Properties dialog box just yet! You have your new icon on the Taskbar, but you might want to change the icon to something more appealing.
While the Properties dialog box is still open, and the Shortcut tab is still active, click the “Change Icon” button.
Because there is no icon associated with the
Show Desktop.exe
icon we pinned to the Taskbar, we have to select an icon from a different file.
No worries, though. Windows automatically selects the
shell32.dll
file in the %SystemRoot%system32
folder that contains a lot of icons from which you can choose. Select an icon by clicking on it in the “Select an icon from the list below” box and click the “OK” button.
Now, click the “OK” button to close the Properties dialog box.
Initially, the icon may not change on the Show Desktop.exe icon on the Taskbar. However, restarting File (or Windows) Explorer will fix this.
Quick Launch Icons Not Showing
Here is the Show Desktop icon on the Taskbar.
The Show Desktop icon on the far right side of the Taskbar is still available in Windows 7, 8, and 10, even after using one or both of these methods to “move” it.
For more on changing icons to something more unique, check out our guide to customizing icons in Windows, and chanaging icons for certain file types.
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