Windows Shortcuts

[ACTCMS]

Is there a way to get the target of a Windows Shortcut (.lnk) without having to reference Shell32?

If not, would having the Interop.Shell32.dll in my plugin folder cause any problems?

[bgowland]

There are a few sites out there which have the .LNK format details as a result of reverse-engineering but it looks fairly complex to parse.

I can't think of any reason why using Interop.Shell32.dll would be a problem.

Not sure if you've already been playing with it but I found this along the way...

Code:

public string GetShortcutTargetFile(string shortcutFilename)
{
    string pathOnly = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(shortcutFilename);
    string filenameOnly = System.IO.Path.GetFileName(shortcutFilename);

    Shell32.Shell shell = new Shell32.ShellClass();
    Shell32.Folder folder = shell.NameSpace(pathOnly);
    Shell32.FolderItem folderItem = folder.ParseName(filenameOnly);
    if (folderItem != null)
    {
        Shell32.ShellLinkObject link = (Shell32.ShellLinkObject)folderItem.GetLink;
        return link.Path;
    }
    return ""; // not found
}

Cheers,
Brian

[ACTCMS]

Not sure if you've already been playing with it but I found this along the way...

Code:

public string GetShortcutTargetFile(string shortcutFilename)
{
    string pathOnly = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(shortcutFilename);
    string filenameOnly = System.IO.Path.GetFileName(shortcutFilename);

    Shell32.Shell shell = new Shell32.ShellClass();
    Shell32.Folder folder = shell.NameSpace(pathOnly);
    Shell32.FolderItem folderItem = folder.ParseName(filenameOnly);
    if (folderItem != null)
    {
        Shell32.ShellLinkObject link = (Shell32.ShellLinkObject)folderItem.GetLink;
        return link.Path;
    }
    return ""; // not found
}

Thanks Brian - I found that too and that's exactly what I'm currently using - I was just wondering if there was another way...

Alex

[bgowland]

Thanks Brian - I found that too and that's exactly what I'm currently using - I was just wondering if there was another way...

You could probably do it with [DllImport("shell32")] and by defining the individual methods you need using

Code:

private static extern <return-type> <method-name>(<params>);

but I suspect the Interop.Shell32.dll is probably just a wrapper class which does this for you.

Cheers,
Brian

[mvallevand]

Here's a BinaryReader version http://thelightness.blogspot.ca/2005/07/...-in-c.html only because you said you were looking for alternatives.

Martin