(SOLVED) How to create desktop shortcut in Windows 7 mode?

How do I create a desktop shortcut in Windows 7 mode?



Here is a YouTube video of me creating desktop shortcuts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqXVuQyJJp8

Example #1:
Create a shortcut for Google Chrome.
Drag and drop from Zorin Menu.
Shortcut is created.

Example #2:
Create a shortcut for LibreOffice Calc.
Found item in Zorin Menu, right click, Create Desktop Shortcut.
This produces LibreOffice Calc.desktop.

From past exprience; I know I can simply right click the icon, select Properties, click Permissions tab and checkmark the box Allow executing file as program to make the shortcut functional.


Example #3:
Create a shortcut for LibreOffice-Writer.
Drag and drop from Zorin Menu.

Not sure what to do here?? First time, I have run into this problem. Does anyone know why this happens??

Any help and/or explanation is greatly appreciated.

Hi Swarf,

Yes, it is Zorin 6.2 Core 64 bit.

Listed below are my system specifications (if this helps):
Zorin OS 6.2 Core 64bit- Kernel 3.2.0-38-generic
Intel Desktop Board DH55HC
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 650 @ 3.20GHz
7.7 GiB RAM
GeForce GT240 PCIe

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swarfendor437 wrote:I seem to remember (but my grey cells are dying off!) that you could do this in 4. What spavila is trying to do is drag the icon to the desktop like you can in another OS!

@spavila, have you tried running 'gksudo nautilus' and then seeing if it drags off the menu ok?

Did you mean run 'gksudo nautilus' and drop and drag from Zorin Menu? -- Result is still the same??

or

Did you mean run 'gksudo nautilus' and drop and drag from nautilus to desktop to create a shortcut??

ak1ovic wrote:My apologies. I missed where he said he knew that already

No problem ak1ovic. I greatly appreciate the time and effort you took to respond to try and help a fellow Zorin user.

Ok, this is what I have found out:

Method #1:
DRAG AND DROP from Zorin Menu (in Windows 7 mode):
Most of the time this will work correctly. From searching other forums about desktop shortcuts, there seems to be some sort of quirk when creating LibreOffice desktop shortcuts. This has something to do with "symbolic links" (not going into greater detail...if you are curious you can Google symbolic links).

Method #2:
Highlight item in Zorin Menu and right click and select Create Desktop Shortcut. This will create a file called <program>.desktop. However, it is not a functional shortcut. To make the shortcut work, you need to right click the file and select properties and select the permissions tab and check Allow executing file as program -- then the shortcut will work.

When I originally posted this question, I was stumped about the 3rd shortcut I made and I really wanted to know what was the reason -- now I know about symbolic links and the quirks about creating LibreOffice desktop shortcuts.

Hope this information is useful to other Zorin members. I always welcome input from fellow Zorin members which make using Zorin OS more enjoyable to use.

Please mark this as SOLVED.

Here are some screenshots where permissions are shown in terminal (for those familiar with the ls -l command):