Windows 7 Parent folder in a new window (shortcut?)

If you right-click on the desktop and choose 'new' and then 'shortcut', you can create whatever shortcut is needed...

This also might prove useful (although for vista, should work for 7)

Link Removed

Make a shortcut to the program that you want to create a keyboard shortcut for. You can do this as Kemical suggests, or go to the program/folder/.exe, right click it, and select the shortcut option.
Right-click the shortcut, and then click Properties.
In the Shortcut Properties dialog box, click the Shortcut tab.
Click in the Shortcut key box, press the key on your keyboard that you want to use (The word None appears in the Shortcut key box until you press a key; then it's replaced with Ctrl+Alt+the key that you pressed.This may be the downside for you - keyboard shortcuts automatically start with Ctrl+Alt, but are often, not always, automatically inserted without you finger intervention), and then click OK. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
If you're using a program that also has a keyboard shortcut using the same key combination as the shortcut you just created, then your shortcut might not work.
You can't use the Esc, Enter, Tab, Spacebar, PrtScn, Shift, or Backspace keys to create a keyboard shortcut.

Example. I want a shortcut to my "Brother" folder. I open Windows Explorer and drag the BRother folder to the desktop and create a shortcut for it, from the options. I open the shortcut properties and the Shortcut Tab. Click the Shortcut key window and press F10,Apply. Finished. I can now go immediately to the Brother folder by pressing F10.

Sorry, I was quite unclear. By shortcuts I meant keyboard shortcuts (or why not mouse shortcuts), not shortcut icons.

WinKey I mentioned is a great program, it's just discontinued. But it seems I now found the answer, or a kind of workaround at least. It's pretty useful though, for many things!

It's a program called AutoHotkey and it allows versatile key macros. The following will "open parent folder in a new window" (it does control+n and then AltUp, where #v is Winkey+v):

#v::
SetKeyDelay, 150
Send ^n
Send !{Up}
return