Add a desktop shortcut using Group Policy Objects (GPO) -

Desktop shortcuts in an enterprise environment can be published using GPO to the domain users. GPO allow us to publish –

a specific web url or
a locally published webapp on a in-house server or
a link to an exe (executable file) or
shared network folder

When we deploy a GPO for these utilities, it publishes the specified icon on the desktop for either all users or a subset of domain users as per GPO.

Once we create a GPO, the icons may not appear instantaneously on the user machines/desktops. It will appear once the machine/desktop will sync with the server, or we can manually force the group policy updates on the device using command “gpupdate /force” or a force log off or a force reboot.

Steps to create a GPO –

Open Group Policy Management Console (GPMC)
Right Mouse Click RMC the domain and select option ‘Create a GPO in this domain and Link it here‘

Go to the GPO –> RMC and select EDIT

This will launch “Group Policy Management Editor“, navigate to ‘User Configuration’ –> Preferences –> ‘Windows Settings’ –> Shortcuts –> New –> Shortcut.

Specify the shortcut variables (screenshot below is for setting up a URL shortcut)

If you want to publish the shortcut to a specific set of users, use the checkbox ‘Item-Level Targeting‘. Else leave it unchecked if all users require the shortcut published.