How to add an application icons to the desktop in 14.04?

First copy your desired application's icon from the /usr/share/applications directory to Desktop,

sudo cp /usr/share/applications/filename.desktop ~/Desktop

Then change the permissions(give execute permission to the .desktop file) of copied .desktop file on the Desktop,

sudo chmod +x ~/Desktop/filename.desktop

Double click on the application icon to run it's corresponding application.

Create a symbolic link in the desktop folder to the file you want to execute. Open a terminal session and change to your Desktop folder:

cd Desktop

To create the desktop icon use:

ln -sv "target file to execute" "filename to create for shortcut" (no quotes)

I tried it with Nautilus and it worked fine. So far all of the icons I have created work, but they don't get an identifying icon, just the AptURL icon.

Here's the example I created for Nautilus:

ln -sv /usr/bin/nautilus "File Manager"

The icon appeared on the desktop and it works fine, as have the others I made. You do need to be able to find the executable files, which means you need to know some Linux, but otherwise it's pretty easy.