How to Add Internet Explorer 7 Icon to your Desktop in Windows Vista

Unlike in the past version of windows the Internet Explorer is pretty much visible on the desktop. You can also easily remove or add via desktop icon settings on the desktop properties but Windows Vista the Internet Explorer 7 icon is removed from the desktop. I know you can just create a shortcut of IE7 to your desktop right? but there are benefits on using the IE7 icon instead of a shortcut. Like you can go directly to the Internet Options page just by right clicking the icon and choosing properties and you can start Internet Explorer without any add-ons.

To add Internet Explorer 7 to your desktop we will perform a simple registry hack. Please backup your registry first.

Open regedit.exe and navigate and look for the following key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel

Add a new 32-bit DWORD value with the following name and value:

Key Name: {871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}
Value: 0

Right-click on your desktop and choose Refresh, the Internet Explorer icon will automatically show up.

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