Create desktop shortcut for Android Studio to open a specific project

Question

How do I create a desktop shortcuts (in Windows) to open a specific project in Android Studio?

The projects are in in C:\Users\\AndroidStudio\Projects\ but the directory does not contain any file which appear to be associated with Android Studio. (it contains .git, .gradle, .idea, ...)

I'm a bit annoyed by having to open the last project (happens automatically), and then having to use the menu in the IDE to launch another instance with the project I want, as it appears to trigger a resource intensive gradle sync on each of the opened projects.

Answer 1

Have the same problem, Android Studio opens all the projects opened when I exited!
Half of an answer is present in uncheck automatic opening when launching AS in AS settings
So, without automatic project opening, Android Studio is launched with a 'poor' UI, poor startup Android Studio window but providing a recent project selection list on the left part of the window ;-), just click on the desired project, then let's go!

Using the first part above (uncheck the automatic opening) and in Windows (Win7 for me), create a shortcut targeting the Android Studio application; open the properties of the shortcut then add the path of the .idea\workspace.xml of your project to the command-line e.g. C:\Android\android-studio\bin\studio64.exe D:\02-Android\minimalistApp\.idea\workspace.xml then close with OK button to validate the changes!

Now when you (double)click on this shortcut Android Studio will start in 2 steps: minimal UI then your project will be launched.

Of course, you can create as many different shortcuts as you want to target different project!

Answer 2

What I did is that I closed the project every time before exiting. I did that by going to File -> close project.

Or you can close it normally, and when you open Android Studio the next time, you can press Cancel when the first loading bar pops up.