SOLVED: Creating a desktop "shortcut" or "launcher"

[smhardesty]

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I have no doubt that at one time I knew exactly how to do this, but whether it's old age or all the stupid medication I take, I seem to have a complete brain fart. I have searched on here and can't seem to find exactly what I'm looking for. What I'm after is really basic and it's infuriating that I can't figure it out.

All I want to do is create a "shortcut" or "launcher" or whatever the correct terminology is, to launch a program. For instance, I'd like to have something on the desktop to open Firefox. I've tried creating a new file on the desktop, but I must be missing something in the data I enter. If it's not too much trouble could someone either point me to a thread that explains how to do that, or of there isn't a thread, then explain here how to do it? I tell ya, I feel like one of my old computer customers from years ago. This is very simple and basic and I'm doing something wrong. Makes me feel a bit sheepish. LOL!

Anyway, any bit of help will be appreciated.
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[Rex Bouwense]

If you still have the LXPanel, there already should be a launcher on the panel for your web browser. If there isn't you can click on any open space on the panel and select Panel and then add Firefox to the Panel as a launcher. If you are not using the LXPanel you should be able to create a desktop shortcut by right clicking Firefox from your menu and selecting "add to desktop" from the drop down menu.

[smhardesty]

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Thanks, Rex. I just now logged in because about an hour ago it suddenly hit me how to do it. I already knew how to create a launcher on the panel. It was the desktop shortcut I couldn't recall how to do. I had been trying to create a new "Empty File" on the desktop, then adding lines to a "script" to do it. I was fiddling with trying to figure it out and I suddenly remembered that all I had to do was right click on the item in the Menu and select "Add to desktop". You can't do that with XFCE or Mate either as I recall so I had forgotten how to do it in the past years I've been running Mate then XFCE.

Sometimes I think we all try and overthink a problem. This time I was completely convinced, in my mind, that I had to actually create the shortcut from scratch. I guess I'll just blame this one on old age. That gives me a couple other excuse left for the future. LOL!

Maybe it's running Openbox by itself when you have to create all the shortcuts from scratch. I know that somewhere, sometime in my past I did that. Doesn't matter now I guess.

Thanks again for you response. I'm about to do a little work on two other laptops. The one I am using for my "server" has been having little fits of some kind. Instead of using the built-in wireless on my HP printer, I disable wireless and then plug the printer into that server and share/broadcast it. Since I have the firewall set on the server that keeps the neighbors from even seeing that I have a printer. Anyway, every couple of days, give or take, that server is somehow broadcasting two printers with slightly different names. I've never had that happen before and it freaked me out the first time I saw it on this laptop. I went to print something and was presented with two HP printers to choose from. Weird.

The other thing that started happening just a few days ago was that the printer just disappeared. No matter how many different combinations of rebooting the server and the other three laptops I tried, the printer just wasn't there. I even tried deleting the printer from the server then rebooting the server and letting it find the printer again. Didn't work. The next day the printer showed up and I hadn't done a thing. That's kind of like chasing a ghost.

So, I'm going to change the computer name on the spare laptop I have, then use it as the server and I'll do a reload on the one that is currently the server. I've found a couple more performance tweaks I want to try and a fresh reload will give me a chance to try them out. Changing the computer name made my old noggin' blow black smoke too. It took me about three hours of thinking about it last night while I was watching a ballgame before I remembered the "hostnamectl" command and how to use it to actually make the name change. Man, I hate getting old. LOL!

You, and everybody else, have a Happy Easter.

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[edward]

Each item on the LXDE menu, when right-clicked, has an option Add to desktop. That's how I've been doing it all this time.