Did You Know? You Can Drag and Drop Browser Links to Your Desktop

In at least four major browsers—Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari—on Windows, Mac, and Linux, you can easily drag and drop a shortcut link to a website straight to your desktop. Here’s how to do it.

Create a Web Shortcut Using Chrome, Edge, and Firefox

To create a desktop web shortcut, first open a Chrome, Edge, or Firefox browser window and navigate to the site you want to create a shortcut from. In the address bar at the top of the window, click and drag the padlock icon (located to the left of the address) out of the browser window and onto your desktop.

As soon as you click and drag, you’ll see the title or address of the website beside your pointer. When you’re hovering over the desktop, release your mouse button, and a shortcut icon will be created. To use the shortcut, double-click it at any time, and the site will open in your default browser.

This shortcut doesn’t have to stay on your desktop either—you can move it to any folder on your PC.

RELATED: How to Create Desktop Shortcuts on Windows 10 the Easy Way

Create a Web Shortcut Using Safari on Mac

To make a desktop web shortcut on a Mac, first open a Safari browser window and navigate to the site you want to create a shortcut to.

In that window, hover your mouse cursor over the address bar at the top of the window, and a small plus (“+”) icon will appear on the far left side. Click and drag the plus icon onto your desktop and release your mouse or trackpad button. A shortcut icon will appear.

After that, you can double-click the shortcut icon, and your default browser app will open and automatically load the website stored in the link.

By the way, this isn’t the only drag-and-drop trick you can do with browsers. Most browsers also allow you to drag tabs between open windows of the same browser. Have fun—and happy browsing!

RELATED: PSA: You Can Drag Tabs Between Browser Windows Within Chrome (and Other Browsers)