How to Add Website Shortcuts to the Windows Start Menu

This tutorial explains how to add program and/or website (URL) shortcuts to the Start Menu.

First, right-click on the Start button and click on Explore.

This will open Windows Explorer in the Start Menu folder under your user profile. If you want to be able to add the website shortcut to the Start Menu for all users, when you right-click, choose Explore All Users instead of Explore. There should also be a folder called Programs, but don’t go into that folder.

Now right-click and choose New and then Shortcut.

In the box “Type the location of the item”, go ahead and type in the URL for the website you want to add. For example, type in http://www.idealts.com and click Next.

Give your shortcut a name in the “Type a name for this shortcut” box. This will be the title shown in the Start Menu and it can be whatever you like.

Click Finish and you’re done! There is one thing to remember when it comes to adding web site shortcuts to the Start Menu and that is which version of the start menu are you using. If you’re using the Classic Start Menu, your link will appear at the top, above the Programs group like shown below:

However, if you’re using the normal Windows Start Menu that comes with Windows XP, by default the link will only appear when you click Start and then click on Programs like shown below.

However, that’s not what we want! We want to be able to click on Start and then simply click on our link, not have to click on Programs first! Luckily it’s very easy to get your link into the main section of the Start Menu and that is by simply opening the programs list and then dragging and dropping the URL to where you want it.

Drag it between any two programs listed and you’ll see that it becomes a dark black line, meaning you can release the mouse button and it will drop it in between the other two shortcuts.