How to create a shortcut on your Desktop to a folder from your smartphone

[Sergiu Funieru]

I use IrfanView for batch processing the pictures I take with my phone.

I connect my smartphone to my computer, using the USB cable that came with the phone. This way, I can see in Windows Explorer the folders from my phone.

I wanted to create a shortcut, on my Desktop, to the pictures folder, which is on my phone. When I tried to drag and drop that folder, while pressing and holding the right button of the mouse, I only had 2 options : "Move here" and "Copy here", but no "Create shortcut here".

The solution I found was to right click the folder's name, choose "Copy", then go to Desktop, right click, and choose "Paste Shortcut".

I posted this in the hope it will help someone who tried the same thing.

Sergiu Funieru

[Mij]

Sergiu, are you sure that you have created a shortcut direct to the folder on your phone? What would normally happen with Windows is that when you choose "Copy" you create a new folder on your desktop with copies in it of whatever files are there on your phone. When you paste a shortcut by right clicking on that you create a link to the folder on your desktop not to the one on your phone.
I am not saying that is definitely what you have done. If the phone is running Android or some other operating system, unexpected results do sometimes happen.

[Sergiu Funieru]

>>> Sergiu, are you sure that you have created a shortcut direct to the folder on your phone?
I believe so.

Here's how that shortcut looks like - the type of file is Shortcut (.lnk). The target is:
Computer\F60\SD card\DCIM\Camera.


>>> What would normally happen with Windows is that when you choose "Copy" you create a new folder on your desktop with copies in it of whatever files are there on your phone. When you paste a shortcut by right clicking on that you create a link to the folder on your desktop not to the one on your phone.
I don't paste a shortcut. I chose "Paste shortcut" instead of "Paste".
Copy + Paste creates a folder. Copy + Paste shortcut creates a shortcut to that folder, instead of copying it. It works the same as with regular folders.

>>> If the phone is running Android or some other operating system, unexpected results do sometimes happen.
Yes, it's running Android, but, in my opinion, the result is the expected one.

If you'd like, I can create a short video to illustrate the process.

Sergiu Funieru

[Mij]

Yes, you are quite right. I misunderstood what you were doing as it is a feature of Windows Explorer that I have never come across before. Nor it seems have the authors of several books on Windows that I own.

It does I discover enable you to create a shortcut to virtual folders such as Libraries. Right click on that and there is no "Create shortcut" option but "Copy" is there and clicking on that presumably creates a "virtual copy" (since it does not appear on the clipboard). Yet when you right click on the Desktop, "Paste shortcut" is indeed there as an option and clicking on that puts a shortcut to Libraries right there on the desktop. In this case the link is to somewhere deep in Appdata where "Libraries" I see does actually exist as a real folder.

You learn something new all the time!

[Sergiu Funieru]

>>> I misunderstood what you were doing as it is a feature of Windows Explorer that I have never come across before.
I love hidden features! Treasures are supposed to be deep buried.
For instance, the God mode:

http://www.pagestart.com/win8godmode032713.html

I was shocked when I saw that for the very first time. All those settings, all in one place, arranged neatly! It was a dream came true.

>>> It does I discover enable you to create a shortcut to virtual folders such as Libraries.
Indeed, but that's a simpler problem. That is, you can create those shortcuts with "drag while right clicking". The option "Create shortcuts here" appears for all the folders from my computer, even for special ones like "libraries", but it doesn't appear when I try to do the same for the folders from my phone. I have no idea why they say "create shortcuts" (using plural), as "paste shortcut" uses singular.



>>> In this case the link is to somewhere deep in Appdata where "Libraries" I see does actually exist as a real folder.
The link to my picture folder is Computer\F60\SD card\DCIM\Camera. Yet, when I try to create a shortcut, in the regular way, I can't.


That method, with Copy + Paste as shortcut was the only one that worked for me, when it came to folders from my phone.

When I tried searching Google for this problem, I couldn't find any relevant result, as all results were about creating a shortcut on the Android phone, not on Explorer. That is, all those links showed me how to use the Android phone to create a shortcut from a folder from the phone to the desktop of the phone, not on the desktop of my computer.

>>> You learn something new all the time!
That's why I posted it, hoping that it (or parts of it) would be useful.

Here's the full picture of what I'm trying to do. Depending on the available space I have on my phone, the pictures I take arrive on the internal memory or on the SD card. When I backup those pictures, I never remember the location of those files. I tried writing them as plain text, in a file, like: Computer\F60\SD card\DCIM\Camera, then pasting that text directly in Explorer. It works, but I have to do a lot of operations. What I really wanted was this : to click once on desktop, to manually type 1 command, which in turn will open both folders. So, I created 2 shortcuts (one for each location), and when I type lgmic, both folders from my phone open at once, as Explorer windows. No more copy/pasting of locations for me!

The ability to type commands in places that don't accept commands was a huge surprise to me. I knew for years that AHK can understand combinations like CTRL + L, but I discovered by accident that it can understand commands like lgmic, typed as a word. It accepts even spaces, so I could even type it as lg mic if I want. It's like having an invisible command prompt! After I discovered that, I stopped using combos like CTRL + L. Now, I have words for everything I need. For instance, mc launches a special shortcut to MyComputer. My desktop is now completely empty.

At some point, I created a software, called LUNLUNPANEL, which can display 60 buttons. I never released it as setting the locations is manual, but, to me it's quite useful. So, when I type llp (for LunLunPanel) it gives me a list with the 60 most useful locations. Here's how it looks like (in this picture, only several buttons are active. When a button is not active, it's not displayed at all.


I know there are more complex such organizers out there, but mine has just 60 buttons, with names as plain text. That's the part I've never seen. No colors, no distracting elements.

It was my first project in assembler language, and it's lighting fast and small (only 19 Kb). I think I'll release it as DAREWARE - free for the brave souls who are willing to learn how to set the shortcuts.

As a side note, with AHK I managed (after a lot of trial and error) to assign commands to keys like Zoom+ or Documents from my Microsoft Keyboard, which were nonassignable, using the Microsoft software that came with the keyboard.

Here's the mini AHK script I was mentioning. It's as short as that. If you copy/paste it, and save it as tryme.ahk, it runs nicely. For years, I didn't know that if I hold the SHIFT key while right-clicking a file, I can get the full path to it. It works even for shortcuts, which are, after all, .lnk files without the lnk extension shown.

:*:lgpic::
  Run "C:\MyLinks\Link to LG F60 Pictures folder (internal memory).lnk"
  Run "C:\MyLinks\Link to LG F60 Pictures folder (SD card).lnk"
return 

I also attached the ahk file, for convenience.

Sergiu Funieru