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How to add a "Show Desktop" icon to the taskbar in Windows 10 (or 7, 8)

How to add a "Show Desktop" icon to the taskbar in Windows 10 (or 7, 8)

by Mihai Neacsu on 14 October 2014 · 193591 views

Windows 7 introduced Peek / Show Desktop and the following editions of Windows, namely 8, 8.1, and 10, kept this feature. By default, the option is located at the far bottom-right end of the taskbar. If you find that location inconvenient and you would rather have a Show Desktop icon located near the Start, like in Windows XP or Vista, we'll show you below an easy method to create one. This method works for Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10.

Tip: Pressing Win + D on your keyboard also toggles Show Desktop / Show Open Windows.

The default far-right bottom option to show the desktop looks like this:

1 full How to add a Show Desktop icon to the taskbar in Windows 10 or 7 8

We are aiming for something like:

3 full How to add a Show Desktop icon to the taskbar in Windows 10 or 7 8

or

2 full How to add a Show Desktop icon to the taskbar in Windows 10 or 7 8

Here are the steps.

1. Go to the desktop. You can do this faster by pressing Win+D.

2. Right-click an empty area and choose New > Shortcut.

4 full How to add a Show Desktop icon to the taskbar in Windows 10 or 7 8

3. Copy / Paste the line of text below into the location field:

%windir%\explorer.exe shell:::{3080F90D-D7AD-11D9-BD98-0000947B0257}

5 full How to add a Show Desktop icon to the taskbar in Windows 10 or 7 8

4. Click Next, pick a name for your shortcut and click Finish.

6 full How to add a Show Desktop icon to the taskbar in Windows 10 or 7 8

5. At this point, the shortcut is working and you could add it to the taskbar, but it will show the explorer icon. You can easily fix this by changing the icon:

a) Right-click the shortcut on the desktop and choose Properties.

b) By default it opens the Shortcut tab in the Properties window. Click on Change icon.

7 full How to add a Show Desktop icon to the taskbar in Windows 10 or 7 8

c) You'll notice the shortcut gets its icon from explorer.exe which does not offer too many options. You could pick the old 'show desktop' icon.

8 full How to add a Show Desktop icon to the taskbar in Windows 10 or 7 8

d) Or copy/paste %SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll, then press Enter in the field under Look for icons in this file.

e) This will open imageres.dll which has a larger variety of icons to choose from. The blue one highlighted below looks appropriate.

9 full How to add a Show Desktop icon to the taskbar in Windows 10 or 7 8

Select it and click OK.

6. With the proper icon set, you can now right-click the Show Desktop shortcut and choose Pin to taskbar. You can drag the icon around to left or right in the taskbar.

10 full How to add a Show Desktop icon to the taskbar in Windows 10 or 7 8

7. You can now delete the shortcut on your desktop if you wish. The Show Desktop icon pinned to taskbar will continue to work properly.

That's it. Leave a comment below if you run into trouble.

#how tos #windows 8 #desktop #windows 10
Comments (17)
shellime on 8 Oct 2017
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Ah... I found your name :) Great job!, Mihai Neacsu
shellime on 8 Oct 2017
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WOW!! This was a GREAT HELP! I have hated Windows-10 for many reasons over the last 2 years, and losing the "DESKTOP" option was one reason. Many thanks to you for solving this annoyance!

To bad MICROSOFT is getting to RICH and "too big for it britches!" MS should go back to its ROOTS and STOP making their software a PAIN IN THE A*S!... They are setting themselves up for A BIG BIG FALL. One day someone (you?) will come along with a SIMPLE OS that could shut MS and Apple down for good. To bad they (Microsoft & Apple)are just MONEY MONGERS and don't care about their consumers anymore. Yes, in the 1980s Both worked hard to please the public. I miss the "good 'ole days... I LONG for good 'ole plain DOS ... Yes, WINDOWS went to SH*T when they buggered up the works with the REGISTRY. We didn't and don't need that non-sense!

Again, many thanks to you for this fine example of a caring person! Keep it up. Oh... who are YOU anyway? I didn't catch your name or credits.

Best regards,
Shelli
julex17 on 24 Aug 2017
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Great!! Thanx!
darfus on 17 Jul 2017
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Very good, work perfectely!!!!!
anilahlawat2311 on 10 Mar 2016
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thanks its works
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kshu on 5 Dec 2015
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Very glad to hear that, bobart and mc4bbs :).
mc4bbs on 5 Dec 2015
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So obvious... not! Thanks so much for this -- WIN+D was a pain when you're in "mouse mode" ;-)
bobart on 27 Sep 2015
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Woohoo..easy. I use 2 monitors, so instructions on one screen and work on the other. And the desktop frequently.
Thanks!
kshu on 21 Sep 2015
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I'm glad it worked. This is one of my favorite shortcuts that I use a lot daily :). Sometimes pressing Ctrl+D is more convenient, but other times I prefer clicking on the 'Show Desktop' shortcut instead.
venice on 21 Sep 2015
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Thanks for your reply. I tried it four times, each time simply copying and pasting what you showed above. After I got your response, I tried it yet one more time...and this time it worked. Have no idea what was happening the first 4 times, but it doesn't matter now. Thanks for your help!
kshu on 21 Sep 2015
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Hi venice! Make sure the target of the shortcut is correct and you did not miss any chars (letter, number, space, etc) from the line on step 3:

%windir%\explorer.exe shell:::{3080F90D-D7AD-11D9-BD98-0000947B0257}
venice on 21 Sep 2015
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Everything was going great - shortcut appeared in my task bar just like I wanted. Unfortunately, when I click on it, it opens the File Explorer window, not the desktop. What can I do?
hanebo on 12 Sep 2015
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Thank you very much for this! I find that when I have the Edge browser window open, and I click on the new Show Desktop icon I pinned to the Taskbar, I have to click the icon twice (not a double click, but two clicks in slow succession) to get the desktop to open. This does not happen with other applications, like Word, Excel, Outlook, etc. Has anyone else noticed this, or had this issue?
kshu on 27 Aug 2015
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You're welcome, rxyz. I know most people hate registering on new sites and we plan on moving away from the closed comment system. At first we decided on asking people to register as a way to prevent spam.
rxyz on 27 Aug 2015
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kshu, a perfect explanation that works so simply. I created an account here simply to express my appreciation (need an acount to comment, apparently). Thank you for the time you're taking/took to help!
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kshu on 23 Aug 2015
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You're welcome, toglenn. I use this shortcut myself daily! :)
toglenn on 23 Aug 2015
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Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!
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