On Windows, you can use File Explorer and its Quick access sidebar to manage and launch files and folders. Unfortunately, this sidebar has some issues, including…
it’s a pain to reorder the Quick access items,
you cannot launch executables from it,
and you cannot give
items
meaningful aliases.
For example,
Visual Studio Code’s
Roaming
User directory
is listed as simply User
rather than something meaningful like
VSCode Settings.
💡 | File Explorer’s sidebar is also known as the Navigation pane. To control whether it is displayed, do the following.
|
In the next section, I describe how I create and use a Desktop shortcut.
When configuring qutebrowser,
I
often
do things in
my
Use Windows File Explorer to navigate
to
this
Roaming
qutebrowser directory.
Right click its config subdirectory
and
choose
View the Desktop by pressing Win+D.
On the Desktop, Right click the
newly-created
shortcut
icon that’s labeled
config - Shortcut,
choose Rename,
and name it something more meaningful,
for example
qutebrowser config.
After doing this, I can use Win+D to view the Desktop and then…
double click the shortcut to open the directory in Windows File Explorer,
or Right click the shortcut and in the context menu choose either…
Open in Windows Terminal,
Git Bash Here,
Open Folder as IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition Project
Open with Code,
or Properties;
or Shift+Right click the shortcut and choose…
Open PowerShell window here.
You can do the above for
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Code\User\
and
any
other
directory that you regularly visit.
Another example, which includes editing a shortcut’s Properties, is in the desktop shortcut section of Infinite Ink’s Launching Git Bash.
To configure your Desktop, Right click an open spot on it and specify the settings you’d like. Here are some of the Desktop View > settings that I use:
Auto arrange icons
Align icons to grid
Show Desktop icons
With the above settings, I can
drag and drop
my shortcuts
and arrange them
however I like.