More desktop shortcuts

There's a do-it-yourself feel to this tool that lets you create custom folders and add and organize shortcuts to your favorite programs and sites. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and MyShortcuts gets the job done. It doesn't, however, provide a few shortcuts of its own when setting it up.

MyShortcuts sits unobtrusively on the desktop. It isn't pretty, but the compact window becomes transparent when not in use and you can place it anywhere you like. A single button says My Shortcuts, and a click brought up a menu with two default shortcuts to My Computer and Notepad. There aren't any helpful buttons or context menu options for adding a shortcut, but a series of video tutorials on the publisher's site clearly show how to use the program. The process is the same for shortcuts, links, and adding folders. Once you access the settings window, you're directed to the program's source file, and you add a shortcut just as you would on the desktop. It isn't hard, but we would have preferred being able to drag shortcuts directly to the program's desktop interface. Despite the manual setup, we did like the customized folders and quick access to basically anything online or on our computer.

If you don't already have your shortcuts organized as you like, this freeware is a simple solution that won't take you long to master. We found a leftover folder after uninstalling MyShortcuts, but it was easily deleted.