A reader wants advice on adding a shortcut to a YouTube video the Windows 10 desktop.
“This should be an easy one for you, but it will help me (a gamer) greatly. I don’t know when it happened, but I think either Microsoft or Google changed the rules on me. I used to be able to take a YouTube video and create a desktop icon for it. This is a great help during walkthroughs which extend over a period of days. I have even tried creating bookmarks for the videos and creating desktop icons from them (this might be the system I used formerly.) Nothing seems to work anymore, so I am throwing myself on your mercy.”
I’m all about mercy. This should be pretty easy. Open the video you want to create a shortcut for.
Right-click on the video and select Copy video URL from the pop-up menu.
If it’s a long YouTube video and you want to cue it up to a particular spot, make sure to select Copy video URL at the current time.
Click on a blank spot on your desktop and choose New and then Shortcut from the pop-up menu.
Paste the copied YouTube address into the Type the location of the item window. Then click Next.
Name the shortcut and click on Finish.
The Shortcut should appear on your desktop. Click to open to the video.
