How to make a desktop shortcuts on Ubuntu 20.04?

You can copy a file from /usr/share/applications to your desktop folder (~/Desktop) using the cp command. Then right click the .desktop file and select 'allow launching'.

An example would be

cp /usr/share/applications/nautilus.desktop ~/Desktop

Make sure to include the .desktop ending.

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You might also have to allow launching for an existing .desktop file after upgrading to Ubuntu 20.04.

For Application Shortcuts:

I think TheBuntuNewb's answer is pretty good. Do that using file manager:

1. Open /usr/share/applications
2. Copy the application shortcut to desktop
3. Right click on the shortcut on the desktop and select Allow Launching

For Folder/File shortcuts:

Either directly use the terminal to create a symbolic link

ln -s <complete path to dir> <shortcut save location>

or

1. Open the folder in the file manager (nautilus), navigate to the directory to which you want to create a shortcut to.

2. Right click and select Open in Terminal.

3. For shortcut to current directory, type and execute

   ln -s $PWD ~/Desktop/
   

   For shortcut to a file/folder inside the current directory, type and execute

   ln -s $PWD/filename ~/Desktop/
   

   or

   ln -s $PWD/dirname ~/Desktop/
   

Easy graphical way:

1. show your desktop in your home directory

1.1. enable symbolic links in nautilus: Settings → Behavior → [x] Show action to create symbolic links

2. open two windows of nautilus. one for the desktop, second for the shortcut you want to produce.

3. click the item the shortcut has to produced for with the left mouse button and drag it to the desktop folder in your home directory with the ALT-key pressed.

4. when you leave the item on the desktop folder a context meune appears, that give you three options. One of them is "create symbolic link" or so.

Then you're done.

Its awful, that this simple feature has to be done the complex way...