If you need really quick access to launch a frequently used application, without adding additional icons to the desktop, you can add this application to the desktop context menu:
- Open
egedit.exe through the search bar or Win + R.
- Go to the path HKEY_classes_ROOT Directory Background shell.
- Right-click the shell folder.
- Select Create from the menu, then Section.
- Give the new key the name that you want to display in the desktop context menu. For example, Notepad.
- Right-click on the created folder.
- Select New from the menu, then Section.
- Give this section the name command in lower case.
- Click on the command folder.
- Click on the Default file on the right side.
- Paste the full path to the executable file. For example, if it is notepad, then C: Windows System32 notepad.exe, quotation marks are required.
Now, if you right-click on the desktop, a new menu item will appear. Naturally, clicking on this menu item should start notepad.