Strange enough, it’s not so easy to create a link shortcut and save it on the desktop for sharing or quick access from Microsoft Edge. The very handy of favicon drag and drop in Internet Explorer hasn’t been added in the new browser. It would be nice if it does but for now, here are your options:

Create a web link shortcut on the desktop

Right-click on the desktop empty space, go to New, and Shortcut.

Type or paste in the url to the Location box, and go to Next.

Give a name to the shortcut, and click Finish.

A new shortcut is now on the desktop readying to be used. The shortcut will automatically use the website’s favicon as the default shortcut icon. But if you don’t see one, you can customize one yourself by going to the Properties of the shortcut and Change Icon… button.

How to pin the web shortcut to the Start Menu

First of all, press Win + R to bring up the Run dialog box, type the following shell command in the box, and hit Enter.

shell:programs

It opens the Start Menu program folder in File Explorer. Copy the shortcut created early to the folder.

Now open Start Menu, go to All apps, you will see the shortcut you copied in the last step show up there. Right-click on it, and Pin to Start.

Bingo…a new tile shows up in Start right after.

I have to admit it’s quite cumbersome. I hope in the future Microsoft Edge can have the Favicon drag & drop built in.

/update on Aug 24, 2015/

Well, turns out, there is a much easy way to pin a web page to Start screen right in Microsoft Edge. Just open the web page you want to pin, click the … button and choose Pin to Start.