If you often need to check your connections, a shortcut to the Network Connections in Windows might be handy. There are a few ways that you could add a shortcut to the Start Menu or desktop. One way is to set up a shortcut on the My Computer (or Computer) context menu.
Add a Network Connections shortcut to My Computer in Windows desktop
To set up a My Computer context menu shortcut, open the regedit window. Enter regedit into your Start Menu’s search box or Run, and open the window shown below. Alternatively, you could try out Reg [1], which is an enhanced registry editor.
[2]
Now browse to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\shell. Set up a new key by right-clicking shell, selecting New and Key. Enter Network Connections as the key’s title.
[3]
Next, right-click on the Network Connections key and select New > Key. Enter command as the new key’s title. Select the command key, and click (Default) in the right pane to open the window below. There enter explorer shell:::{7007ACC7-3202-11D1-AAD2-00805FC1270E}, and press OK to close the window.
[4]
Close the registry editor’s window. Then right-click My Computer to open its context menu. It will now include a Network Connections shortcut on it that you can select to open that window.
[5]
So now you can quickly access Network Connections directly from the Windows desktop. That’s one of the best ways to set up a shortcut as context menu options don’t add any extra icons to desktop.