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I am using shortcuts a lot, because I find them easier to use that the start menu. Shortcuts to "normal" applications work fine, and IE used to work fine on Windows 7, too. But on Windows 10 IE and Edge are bothering me.

The process I'm using right now to create a shortcut is:

  1. I use Search Everything to locate the executable. For Edge this is MicrosoftEdge.exe and for IE it is iexplore.exe

    This gives me strange paths like

    C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-microsoftedge_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.14393.953_none_4b02f8568e13c02f\MicrosoftEdge.exe

  2. I create a shortcut and use the full path as above and the working directory without the executable name

This works fine for both, IE and Edge, until there is an update for Windows and the path changes. The shortcut icon becomes blank then and I can't start the browsers any more.

What I want is a shortcut that is not sensitive to updates / path changes, e.g. like on Windows 7, I could just enter iexplore.exe without anything else and it would simply find IE.

FYI: it would not be an issue if I just had to fix those 2 links, but I have a lot of websites that only work in IE, while my default browser is Firefox. So my shortcuts to these websites run IE as well and I have to change them all.

Thomas Weller
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1 Answers1

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For Internet Explorer, you should be able to use the traditional location:

%ProgramFiles%\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe

Regarding Microsoft Edge, configure the shortcut with the following location:

%WinDir%\explorer.exe shell:Appsfolder\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe!MicrosoftEdge

Taking it a step further, you will probably want to utilize the Change Icon function on the Microsoft Edge shortcut and within the field that says Look for icons in this file, paste the following location:

%WinDir%\SystemApps\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe\MicrosoftEdge.exe

(Source: How to Create a Microsoft Edge Shortcut in Windows 10)

Run5k
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  • Interestingly that file exists but does not show up in Search Everything. – Thomas Weller Mar 22 '17 at 12:24
  • I can't really speak to the fidelity of Search Everything, but that shortcut should provide the consistency that you want throughout any Windows 10 feature updates. – Run5k Mar 22 '17 at 12:29
  • You should be fine after this. The location for Internet Explorer has been the same for several years, so that will almost certainly survive any subsequent updates. Of course, Microsoft Edge debuted when Windows 10 was initially released so it doesn't have the extensive history that IE does, but hopefully the location of high-profile applications like this one will remain the same. – Run5k Mar 22 '17 at 16:42