Can I start a game straight from a desktop shortcut?

Yes, you can. Games by Zaweba accepts a game id after its program name, so a shortcut that runs ZawebaGames.exe followed by an id such as slither or draughts skips the library and opens that game straight away. It takes a minute to set up and is perfect for the one game you play every day.

The game ids are the short lower-case names used for each game. A few examples are slither, draughts, hidden-mines and broken-hearts. Put one of those after the program in a shortcut and it becomes a one-click door to that game.

Why you might want one

The library is quick to use. Favourites keeps the games you've starred together, Recently played shows what you opened last, and Ctrl+F finds any of the 82 games as you type. Even so, if there's a single game you open every morning with your coffee, going through the library each time is a step you don't need.

A shortcut also helps on a family PC. A younger player can have an icon for the one game they love, and a grandparent can have one that opens straight into a hand of hearts, without either of them having to find their way round five shelves of games.

Making the shortcut

First find where ZawebaGames.exe lives on your PC. The easiest way is to look at the existing shortcut for Games by Zaweba: right-click it, choose Properties, and the Target box shows the full path to the program.

Next, right-click an empty part of the desktop and choose to make a new shortcut. For the location, paste in the full path to ZawebaGames.exe (keep the quotation marks if the path has them), then add a space and the game id after it, so the line ends with the program name, a space and, say, draughts. Give the shortcut a name you'll recognise, such as Draughts, and finish.

Alternatively, copy the existing Games shortcut, open the copy's Properties and add a space and the game id to the end of the Target box. Either way works the same.

Double-click the new shortcut and Games by Zaweba opens directly into that game's title card, with its rules, controls and any modes it offers.

Getting the id right

The id has to match the game's short lower-case name. Words are joined with hyphens, as in hidden-mines or broken-hearts, rather than spaces. If a shortcut opens the library instead of the game you expected, the id is the first thing to check for a typing mistake.

The app also has a separate option meant only for testing. It's not for normal use, so stick to game ids in your shortcuts.

How it fits with the rest of the app

Starting from a shortcut is the same game as starting from the library. Your best score for each game and mode, along with your plays and wins, is kept in the scores file in your settings folder, so a game opened from a shortcut counts towards the same records as one opened from its tile. Esc pauses, F11 goes full screen and F1 explains the rules, just as always, and All games on the bar takes you back to the full library whenever you want something different.

You can make as many of these shortcuts as you like. Some people keep a small group on the desktop, perhaps a card game and a puzzle, and use the library only when they want to try something new.

Other quick ways in

If you'd rather not add icons to the desktop, the library's own tools do most of the same job. Star a game to put it on the Favourites shelf at the top of the library. The Recently played shelf remembers what you opened last, so yesterday's game is usually right there. And Surprise me (Ctrl+R) is there for the days when you want Games by Zaweba to choose for you.

For a daily habit, though, a shortcut straight into the game is hard to beat: one double-click and you're playing.