Windows 10: Custom URL shortcuts on desktop with Edge

For convenience reasons I need to have a couple of desktop shortcuts for various sites which open in IE/Edge.

In Win8 I used the shortcut like "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" http://www.google.com/ to do so. Clicking on it opens a new IE window with a target site. Same shortcut works well in Win10, but, of course, it still opens the URL in IE, not in Edge.

Edge has different syntax, and a short googling around gave me the reasons to believe that cmd.exe "start microsoft-edge:http://www.google.com/" should do the trick. However, it does not.

Shortcut with this line just opens the cmd window and does little else. .bat file with the same string does the same. Opening cmd.exe manually and running start microsoft-edge:http://www.google.com/ works perfectly and does exactly what I want.

So, what I am doing wrong with the shortcuts? Any ideas?

Answer

Okay, I finally figured out how to make a desktop shortcut that will open a specific website in Microsoft Edge, even if Edge is not your default browser. My first solution previously posted here (under my real name Michael Kearney) only works the very first time you use it, then just doesn't work after that. Weird!

Note: If you already have shortcuts on your desktop created from another browser, skip to #4 below to modify those shortcuts. Also, if no shortcuts exist, it still might be easier to create the shortcut using a browser that allows you to drag your bookmarks (favorites) directly from the browser to a shortcut on the desktop, and then skipping to #4 below.

1. 
   

   In Microsoft Edge, add to the Favorites list the web page for which you want a shortcut. (To do this, click the star icon in the address bar once you're on the page you want.)

   
   


2. 
   

   Open File Explorer and navigate to the following location:

   
   

   %LocalAppData%\Packages\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe \AC\MicrosoftEdge\User\Default\Favorites
   



3. 
   

   Find your shortcut within the favorites folder, then right click it, then click "Send to" and then "Send to desktop (create shortcut)".

   
   


4. 
   

   (Only needed if Edge is not the default web browser) On the desktop, right click the newly created shortcut, then click properties. In the URL field, type microsoft-edge: just before the web address. For example: microsoft-edge:http://www.google.com

   
   


5. 
   

   (Optional) Right click the desktop shortcut, click Rename, and give it whatever name you want.

   
   


6. 
   

   (Optional) Right click the desktop shortcut, click properties, then click Change Icon. Browse to a folder you've previously created in C:/windows/system32 that contains custom icons (.ico files) that you've downloaded from various icon collection websites for free. You can also use already embedded icons, but those aren't any fun!

   
   

Hope this helps someone!