Create Devices and Printers Shortcut in Windows 10

Devices and Printers is a special system folder which shows the important devices connected to your computer with fancy icons. This folder was first introduced in Windows 7. Windows 10 comes with this folder in the classic Control Panel. You can create a special shortcut to access this feature faster.

The Devices and Printers folder provides a useful user interface to access and manage your peripheral devices. It shows advanced properties of devices and is able to download realistic looking images for printers, cameras, mice and keyboards. It also contains a number of quick actions in the context menu of a device. It also replaces the classic Printer folder.

For fast access to this useful folder in Windows 10, you might want to create the Devices and Printers shortcut on the Desktop.

To create Devices and Printers shortcut in Windows 10, do the following.

1. Right-click the empty space on your Desktop. Select New - Shortcut in the context menu (see the screenshot).
2. In the shortcut target box, type or copy-paste the following:

   explorer.exe shell:::{A8A91A66-3A7D-4424-8D24-04E180695C7A}

   

3. Use the line "Devices and Printers" without quotes as the name of the shortcut. Actually, you can use any name you want. Click on the Finish button when done.
   
4. Now, right click the shortcut you created and select Properties.
5. On the Shortcut tab, you can specify a new icon if you wish. You can use the icon from the c:\windows\system32\devicecenter.dll file.
6. Click OK to apply the icon, then click OK to close the shortcut properties dialog window.

The command we used is special Active X (CLSID) command. Refer to the full list of these commands available in Windows 10: CLSID (GUID) shell location list in Windows 10

Now, you can move this shortcut to any convenient location, pin it to taskbar or to Start, add to All apps or add to Quick Launch (see how to enable Quick Launch). You can also assign a global hotkey to your shortcut.

Tip: You can add Devices and Printers to This PC or to the Desktop context menu if you want.

That's it.

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