If you’re new to Windows 8 (or Windows 8.1), you’re no doubt battling the learning curve. And some areas aren’t as intuitive as they could be, like trying to navigate your way to the PC Settings menu.

In this article, we will show you how to create desktop shortcuts to access your apps directly from your desktop on Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, and 7.

Tom Shea administers a PC with several users. Some of the shortcuts on his desktop also show up on other people’s desktops. He wants to control when that happens. Desktop sharing and privacy is ...