How does one create a desktop icon for this program please?

Bill Miller

I think there may have been an option to do it while loading it I guess I missed it.

Lycan Thrope

@Bill-Miller ,
Normally, you set it in the Installer’s options that you can choose. Since you didn’t do that, your best bet is just to copy the notepad++.exe to the desktop to make a shortcut.

PeterJones

@Lycan-Thrope said in How does one create a desktop icon for this program please?:

just to copy the notepad++.exe to the desktop to make a shortcut.

That’s not the way I would have phrased it (*). I would describe the process as:

Open a Windows Explorer and navigate to c:\Program Files\Notepad++\ directory (or alternate directory, if you installed it elsewhere)
Multiple choices:
- Click on notepad++.exe and left-drag it onto your desktop: this will create
- Right-click-and-drag notepad++.exe from the folder onto your desktop: when you let go, it will do a popup with multiple choices, and you should choose “Create shortcut here”

(*: because a literal Ctrl+C or Right-Click > Copy from the source and then clicking on the Desktop and doing Ctrl+V or Right-Click > Paste would literally make a copy of the executable, which would not have the same effect as creating a shortcut)

xomx

Right-click the notepad++.exe in the C:\Program Files\Notepad++\:

up to Windows 10: Send to > Desktop (create shortcut)
Win11 with the new context menu: Show more options > Send to > Desktop (create shortcut)

Right-click anywhere on your desktop free area, then New > Shortcut and browse for your C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe, then you can name your shortcut as you wish etc…

mathlete2

In case someone prefers a more programmatic solution, I have found this post incredibly useful for a number of different programs (some of which I want multiple shortcuts for launching with different arguments, and I know that some people want/need to do this with NP++ too).

Alan Kilborn

@mathlete2

You should distill that down into something exactly applicable to Notepad++ and show it here. As is, to non-experts, it is probably daunting…

Coises

Just run the installer again and select that option this time.

(No, it’s not the most “efficient” way to do it, but it’s the simplest if you don’t already know how to do it the “easy” way.)

Bill Miller

@xomx said in How does one create a desktop icon for this program please?:

C:\Program Files\Notepad++\

Thank you to everyone for your replies. I followed the advice of @xomx and opened Program Files. I couldn’t find a .exe file but right clicked on the Application itself within the folder and that yielded a “Create Shortcut” which allowed me to get the desktop icon I was wanting.

Lycan Thrope

@PeterJones , I stand corrected. I do it so often now, that I should have slowed my roll and explained it like you did.