Hello DianeSussman,
My Name is Paul one of the Community Expert and a Windows User like you. The questions you wanted to create a shortcut icons to your Active Desktop and here's how to do that. Click START and search for the Icon that you wanted to appear on your desktop as a Shortcut. Right click on that Icon and choose sent to Desktop (Shortcut Icon) by then it will going to add that Icon to your Active Desktop so you an easily access it.
Another method is when you searched for the App that you wanted to create a shortcut, you can just easily DRAG it to your desktop instead.
Regards,