Ever had to create a shortcut to a batch file or a standalone EXE file that you have stuffed away in some folder on your hard drive? Most programs automatically create shortcuts for you, but for advanced users, there are many small utilities that simply come as EXE files.

In these cases, you can create a shortcut to the program so that you can easily run it from your desktop. In Windows, this is done by right-clicking on the desktop and choosing New Shortcut.

create shortcut windows

This is fine and dandy, but it doesn’t give you a lot of options. You have to manually right-click on the shortcut later and choose Properties if you want to setup a hotkey combo for the shortcut.

And what if you want the shortcut in multiple places like your Desktop, Start Menu, SendTo Context Menu or even to load at startup! Can’t do that with the New Shortcut wizard in Windows.

Luckily, Advanced Shortcuts Composer can! It’s a free program that lets you create shortcuts to programs with pre-defined destinations, a set priority and keyboard hotkeys all ready to go!

advanced shortcuts composer

The program is actually pretty slick. Here’s how it works. Start it up and you’ll get a screen like above. To start, either drag the program into the white box at the top left or click the Folder icon at the right of the Program’s Path text box.

If you drag and drop, it will automatically fill out the details for the program path and the give the Shortcut a name.

windows shortcut generator

Now you can choose three settings: the destination, the priority and the hotkey combo. For the destination, you can choose from Desktop, IE Favorites, SendTo Context menu, Start Menu, Start Menu’s Programs and Windows Startup.

shortcut destination

If you want to create the shortcut in multiple locations, you choose one, click the Create Shortcut button at the bottom right (the one with the gear and the arrow) and then choose another location.

For Priority, you can choose from Low-Idle, Below Normal, Normal, Above Normal, High and Realtime. These are the built-in options for each process in Windows. You can also change this in the Task Manager in Windows.

process priority

Finally, you choose a hotkey for your shortcut. It always starts with Ctrl + Alt and then a letter, number or symbol. Click the Create Shorcut button and your new shortcut will be created!

create shortcut

Now I have a shortcut to a small utility that I use to eject USB devices from my computer.

desktop shortcut

If you’re not too familiar with how to create shortcuts, this is a great utility. And even if you are, it’s still saves a few clicks! Enjoy!