After installing Minecraft, I cannot figure out how to start the game
I installed Minecraft 1.7.2 and after installation it showed the launcher, and I played the game successfully.
But after I closed it, I realized there's no shortcut for Minecraft on the desktop, and when I go to my .minecraft folder and try to run anything there (such as launcher.jar, or 1.7.2.jar) none will open and nothing happens.
How do I start Minecraft?
Minecraft does not "install" like a usual program (in fact, Minecraft.exe is not an installer). When started, it creates and uses a folder for itself (.minecraft), which contains the *.jar executables and assets, but it doesn't create a new launcher executable that is registered in the OS somewhere.
Minecraft is launched through the Minecraft.exe file you originally downloaded (and is probably in a Downloads folder somewhere, or whatever you picked as the download directory), which then runs the .minecraft/launcher.jar archive in java.
I recommend moving (and, if necessary, downloading again) the Minecraft.exe to a "safe" directory (say, making a new Program Data/Mojang/Minecraft directory and placing it there, or moving it to the .minecraft directory itself) and then making a shortcut to it on the Desktop. Minecraft will not do this on its own, as I described above.
Minecraft launcher won't create a shortcut by default. You can find the launcher in your downloads folder. To find your downloads folder, check your browser settings.
To find any application on Windows Vista/7/8 and above, you can also follow these steps:
- Press the Start button on your keyboard (between Ctrl and Alt, to the left of the spacebar)
- Immediately after pressing it, start typing the name of what you are looking for (e.g. "Minecraft"
- You should see the application appear as a search result. Click it (or select with arrow keys and press Enter) to launch the application.