Creating the Quick Launch Toolbar “Show Desktop Icon”

If you use your Quick Launch toolbar, you will know about the show desktop icon. It is an icon that shows the desktop when you click it(it minimizes all windows, and if you click it again, puts them all back). The show desktop icon can be a great help when you are working with a lot of windows. It allows you to minimize them all at once. You can delete this icon and not be able to get it back. This tutorial will show you how to make a Show Desktop icon that you can put anywhere, including your quick launch toolbar.

First thing we need to do is right-click on the desktop and select New-> then click on Text Document. This will create a notepad document on the desktop and allow you to name it.

Name the file whatever you would like for now as we will be changing it later. I named mine Ha.txt.

Next, double-click on the text document to open notepad and copy or type in the following lines:

[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

Now, go to File->Save-as to open the save screen.

This is the save screen. In here we need to change the “Save-as” type to All files.

Next name the file Show Desktop.scf and then click on save.

You should now have the above icon on your desktop.

Next, we need to make sure your computer is set to show hidden files and folders so that we can put this file in the proper location to get it to appear in the Quick Launch task bar. To do this follow this tutorial Once you ensure that you can see hidden files and folders, you are ready to continue.

Right-click on our icon and select cut.

(C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch)

 Next browse to the above folder, changing “Administrator” to whatever your user name is. If you are logged in as the admin, then the above path will work.

Once you are in the Quick Launch folder. Right click on a blank space within that folder and click on paste.

You should now see the Show Desktop icon in your quick launch bar. Thank-you for following this tutorial and I hope it was easy to follow.

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