Foolestroupe -

I don't see a way (in IE7, but I think it's the same in IE6) to drop a shortcut directly onto the desktop, but if you put it into Favorites you can drag it from there to the desktop. Have you found an easier way?

If your Favorites get unmanageable, Click File | Export and export them all to a file location. The export will be an htm page and when you open the export you'll see a "web page" with all your favorites in outline order where they may be a little easier to cull out the garbage. You can import that page back into favorites, so it's essentially a backup, letting you delete all the old ones in the browser and start over. If you want, you can do like I did - with the exported listing open put a link in "Favorites" in IE to the exported file, so you can open it any time you need to look for an oldie.

A handy feature of the exported listing is that since it displays as a web page you can use the "Edit|Find on Page" (or Ctl-F) to look for the one that got buried in the bucket of worms in your browser.

John