Create Safely Remove Hardware shortcut in Windows 10  

    Create Safely Remove Hardware shortcut in Windows 10

    Create Safely Remove Hardware shortcut in Windows 10

    How to Create a Safely Remove Hardware shortcut in Windows 10
    Published by Category: Customization
    14 Feb 2020
    Designer Media Ltd

    How to Create a Safely Remove Hardware shortcut in Windows 10


    Safely Remove Hardware allows you to safely shutdown and eject a "removable" storage device before just unplugging or disconnecting it to help prevent accidental data loss if data were still being copied or saved to or from the device.

    If you have the removal policy for a device set to quick removal, you can disconnect the device safely without using the Safely Remove Hardware notification icon.

    This tutorial will show you how to create or download a Safely Remove Hardware shortcut in Windows 10.


    Contents

    • Option One: To Download a Safely Remove Hardware Shortcut
    • Option Two: To Manually Create a Safely Remove Hardware Shortcut



    EXAMPLE: Safely Remove Hardware
    Create Safely Remove Hardware shortcut in Windows 10-safely_remove_hardware.png






    OPTION ONE

    To Download a Safely Remove Hardware Shortcut


    1 Click/tap on the Download button below to download the .zip file below.

    Safely_Remove_Hardware_shortcut.zip

    Download

    2 Save the .zip file to your desktop.

    3 Unblock the .zip file..

    4 Open the .zip file, and extract (drag and drop) the shortcut to your desktop.

    5 You can Pin to Taskbar, Pin to Start, add to All apps, add to Quick Launch, assign a keyboard shortcut to, or move this shortcut to where you like for easy use.

    6 When finished, you can delete the downloaded .zip file if you like.






    OPTION TWO

    To Manually Create a Safely Remove Hardware Shortcut


    1 Right click or press and hold on an empty area on your desktop, and click/tap on New and Shortcut.

    2 Copy and paste the path below into the location area, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)

    %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll

    Create Safely Remove Hardware shortcut in Windows 10-safely_remove_hardware-1.png

    3 Type Safely Remove Hardware for the name, and click/tap on the Finish button. (see screenshot below)

    You could name this shortcut anything you would like though.

    Create Safely Remove Hardware shortcut in Windows 10-safely_remove_hardware-2.png

    4 Right click or press and hold on the new Safely Remove Hardware shortcut, and click/tap on Properties.

    5 Click/tap on the Shortcut tab, then click/tap on the Change Icon button. (see screenshot below)

    Create Safely Remove Hardware shortcut in Windows 10-safely_remove_hardware-3.png

    6 In the line under "Look for icons in this file", copy and paste the location below, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

    %windir%\System32\hotplug.dll

    Create Safely Remove Hardware shortcut in Windows 10-safely_remove_hardware-4.png

    7 Select the icon highlighted in blue above, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot above)

    You could use any icon that you would like instead though.


    8 Click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below step 5)

    9 You can Pin to Taskbar, Pin to Start, add to All apps, add to Quick Launch, assign a keyboard shortcut to, or move this shortcut to where you like for easy use.


    That's it,
    Shawn






  1. Posts : 12
    Windows 10 Home v2004
       #1

    Option Two looks like it would eject ALL USB devices, correct?
    That would not be good with other USB devices plugged in, such as the USB WiFi on one of our PCs.
      My Computers


  2. Posts : 68,663
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #2

    GrandpaR said:
    Option Two looks like it would eject ALL USB devices, correct?
    That would not be good with other USB devices plugged in, such as the USB WiFi on one of our PCs.
    Hello GrandpaR,

    Each individual removable media should appear in Safely Remove Hardware to eject separately.
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 91
    10 pro
       #3

    Great! But I didn't want to add yet another icon cluttering up the desktop so I added it to the desktop context menu, using the following .reg file:

    Code:
    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
    
    ; Add "Safely remove hardware" to Desktop context menu
    
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\Background\Shell\Eject]
    "MUIVerb"="Safely Remove Hardware"
    "Icon"="hotplug.dll"
    "Position"="Top"
    
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\Background\Shell\Eject\command]
    ""="rundll32 shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll"
    Just one slight problem: the white icon is very difficult to see against the light grey context menu in "light theme" mode. However it shows up very well in "dark theme" mode.

    Please add this to the tutorial as option #3.
    Last edited by SpacemanSam; 13 Sep 2021 at 01:01.
      My Computer


 

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