Windows 10 makes it quite easy to pin Edge to the taskbar if it is not there already, but getting a desktop shortcut is a chore. Try this:

Make sure that you are reading this on your Windows 10 machine where you want a desktop shortcut to Microsoft Edge.

Right-click an open spot on the desktop.

Move the pointer down to New and to the right on the drop-down menu and click Shortcut.

In the new dialog type the text shown on the next line, type it with a space, not a line break after the “.exe”:

%windir%\explorer.exe
shell:Appsfolder\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe!MicrosoftEdge

Click Next.

In the next window you will see the word explorer highlighted for the shortcut name. Just type in Edge and click Finish.

You are not really finished, because the shortcut icon will be a folder and not the Edge icon. Right-click on the new shortcut. In the menu, at the bottom, click Properties.

In the properties window click Change Icon…

The Change Icon window will offer all sorts of icons but not one for Edge. Type the following text into the fle location field:

%windir%\SystemApps\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe\MicrosoftEdge.exe

Click OK. You will next see an Edge icon instead of all the others. Click OK again.

You will see the icon in the properties dialog. Click OK.

Now at last you have an Edge shortcut with the proper icon on your desktop. Try it out.

.:.

© 2015 Ludwig Keck