Show Desktop Shortcut - Create

Brink said:

Since those two pinned shortcuts happen to use explorer.exe (default) in the target path, Windows 7 will default to showing the thumbnail previews of them in the one pinned farthest to the left (taskbar on bottom/top) or top (taskbar on left/right).

I have played a little with it.

Problem is that the self created "Shows Desktop" link is called with "explorer.exe".
But you have another "Shows Desktop" link in folder:
%AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
But you can not easily copy this link to folder:
%AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar
The Icon will not show up in taskbar.

And you even cannot copy and replace the "Shows Desktop" link from "Quick Launch" folder to "TaskBar" folder. After a logout/login the "Shows Desktop" is gone from taskbar.

I think this is because Windows 7 keeps an eye on what happened in folder "TaskBar". In earlier Windows versions (XP and Vista) all installation programs can place their own shortcuts in folder "Quick Launch". That's not possible in Windows 7 "TaskBar" folder. Windows 7 stores the shortcuts although in registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband
If registry entry and shortcut varying, then Windows 7 don't show the shortcut in taskbar.
When you simple copy a shortcut to "TaskBar" folder then the registry will not be updated. If you replace an existing shortcut – which means: delete the old shortcut and save a new one with same name – Windows 7 recognize this.

But you can do the following:

• Create a taskbar shortcut shown in tutorial as "OPTION TWO" and place it far left in taskbar and delete the shortcut from desktop
• Copy the "Shows Desktop" link from "Quick Launch" folder to desktop
• Rename "Shows Desktop" link to "Shows Desktop2"
• Copy "Shows Desktop2" from desktop to "TaskBar" folder
• Delete the previous created "Shows Desktop" link in "TaskBar" folder
• Rename "Shows Desktop2" link to "Shows Desktop"

For not English Windows versions: Keep in mind that the shortcut is always named "Shows Desktop.lnk" – but explorer shows you only a translation. So in German the shortcuts in explorer is shown as "Desktop anzeigen" – but the real file name is still "Shows Desktop.lnk".

Can somebody check out what shell procedure the shortcut "Shows Desktop" in folder "%AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch" is calling ? This could make many things much easier in creating a valid shortcut - instead of using:
C:\Windows\explorer.exe shell:::{3080F90D-D7AD-11D9-BD98-0000947B0257}

I'm totally lost, too. I try to create a shortcut on the desktop, and I don't get the window that was shown. In other words, when I right click on the desktop, then NEW then SHORTCUT, nothing happens.

Any suggestions?

This works perfectly. Thank you, Victor for restoring my sanity.

you don't have to Create a "Show Desktop" Shortcut in Windows 7 as it is already exists at the bottom right corner of the screen ..... at the end of the taskbar

Exactly

Thank u Brink for the welcome ...it's OK ... I thought they may missed the button ... Nice forum here