Make a “Show Desktop” Button in Vista

By default, the Quick Launch toolbar comes with a Show Desktop button, which allows you to quickly hide all open windows and access stuff on your desktop, and then quickly bring them all back when you’re done. But what if your Quick Launch toolbar doesn’t have one?

Unlike most other toolbar buttons, the Show Desktop button isn’t a Windows Shortcut. Rather, it’s a Shell Command File (.scf), which is really just a plain-text file containing a special command Windows understands. To create a new .scf file, open your favorite plain-text editor (or Notepad), and type the following five lines:

[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

Save the file as 'Show Desktop.scf' (or any other name, provided that you include the .scf filename extension) anywhere you like, including your desktop. To have the icon appear on your Quick Launch toolbar, place the file in this folder:
C:\Users\{user}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

If you like the Show Desktop button, but you don’t like the clutter of the Quick Launch toolbar, you can simply eliminate the buttons you don’t use by right-clicking each one and selecting Delete.

Next, right-click an empty area of the Taskbar, turn off the Lock the Taskbar option, and then shrink down the newly sanitized Quick Launch toolbar so it’s no larger than the remaining button. When things are the way you like them, turn Lock the Taskbar back on.

Tags: quick launch,taskbar,shell

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