https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/RSS/?TopicID=73ce928c-04d1-4837-8d59-5a221d2b4f4c DisplayFusion RSS: Tutorial/trick: Making a show desktop icon shortcut just like Quick launch in Win XP Fri, 03 Apr 2026 22:09:13 GMT en hourly 1 https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/RSS/?TopicID=73ce928c-04d1-4837-8d59-5a221d2b4f4c https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/tutorialtrick-making-a-show-desktop-icon-shortcut-just-like-quick-launch-in-win-xp/?ID=73ce928c-04d1-4837-8d59-5a221d2b4f4c Sun, 14 Oct 2018 10:39:10 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/tutorialtrick-making-a-show-desktop-icon-shortcut-just-like-quick-launch-in-win-xp/?ID=73ce928c-04d1-4837-8d59-5a221d2b4f4c DisplayFusion I never cared for the small blip for showing the desktop, so I tried to recreate the old school "show desktop" icon, famously from Windows XP.

One of the best features of AMM and the stock windows XP/7/10 quick launch was the ability to have a simple icon shortcut for showing the desktop, as shown in attachment #1.

I tried several ways (AHK, executing shell commands) before stumbling over this solution.

1. First create a shortcut for showing a desktop.
Right click on the desktop and click on New > Shortcut

Paste this code in the "Type the location of the item" box:

%windir%\explorer.exe shell:::{3080F90D-D7AD-11D9-BD98-0000947B0257}

Name the shortcut Desktop

2. You can now right click on the taskbar you want to add the shortcut to, select "multi-monitor taskbar" > "shortcuts" > "edit shortcuts" > "Add file". Browse to your desktop and you will find the shortcut you just created.

3. Done! The shortcut is there, just like XP! To get rid of the annoying shortcut arrow, just install IconsExtract and extract imageres_110.ico from C:\Windows\system32\imageres.dll. Open the taskbar shortcuts section of displayfusion, select the show desktop file and click Icon-set custom icon. Select imageres_110.ico from where you extracted the icon.

If you want to make another one for a different taskbar, just repeat the same exact patterns over again (including making a new shortcut, as the one you just created may have disappeared from the desktop). ]]>