vbscript to create shortcut from .exe from unknown directory

Question

I work in the IT office of a County Government Agency and we are tasked with, among other things, imaging and setting up computers for the employees. One of our application providers has given us an installer for their application that, upon installation, creates randomized folder names within the parent folder. I am looking for a VBScript that will create a shortcut of a .exe from a directory with unknown sub-folder names and place it in the Public Desktop folder. I have also discovered that the vendor has included two instances of the same application in two different sub-folders. I am only interested in using the path from the first .exe located. I found a script online, (unfortunately, I do not remember where I found it. So, I am unable to give credit to the individual who wrote it), that creates a shortcut if the path is known. I have edited the script by adding some variables and including more icon settings for the shortcut. I am extremely new to scripting, so, I am unable to modify this script to find the path to the .exe and then use the path to create the shortcut. The first .exe is located three sub-folders deep and all three folders have randomized names. Any help is greatly appreciated.

' This script creates a shortcut of MyApp and places it in the Public Desktop folder for all users

Option Explicit
Dim objWSH, objFSO, link, desktopPath, AppPath, IconPath, DirPath

DirPath = "C:\Program Files\MyApp Folder\Randomized1\Randomized2\Randomized3"
IconPath = "C:\Program Files\MyApp Folder\Randomized1\Randomized2\Randomized3\ApplicationIcon.ico"
AppPath = "C:\Program Files\MyApp Folder\Randomized1\Randomized2\Randomized3\MyApp.exe"
Set objWSH = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") 
Set objFSO = WScript.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
desktopPath = "C:\Users\Public\Desktop"

' If file exists define where the shortcut should point to

If objFSO.FileExists(AppPath) Then    
  set link = objWSH.CreateShortcut(desktopPath & "\MyApp.lnk")


  ' Define icon settings
  link.TargetPath = AppPath
  link.IconLocation = IconPath
  link.Description = "MyApp"
  link.WindowStyle = 2
  link.WorkingDirectory = DirPath
  link.Save
Else
  WScript.Echo "Program file does not exist"

 End if

Answer 1

You should be able to modify this to find the files that you want.

Get all files from a directory and it's sub-directories

GetFileList returns an 1 dimensional array of FileInformation.

Function getFileList(localRoot, fld, ftpArray)
    Dim fso, f, baseFolder, subFolder, ftpFile, i

    Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.Filesystemobject")

    If IsNull(fld) Then
        Set baseFolder = fso.GetFolder(localRoot)
    Else
        Set baseFolder = fld
    End If

    For Each f In baseFolder.Files

        If IsNull(ftpArray) Then
            ReDim ftpArray(0)
        Else
            i = UBound(ftpArray) + 1
            ReDim Preserve ftpArray(i)
        End If
        Set ftpFile = New FileInformation
        ftpFile.setValues localRoot, fso, f
        Set ftpArray(i) = ftpFile

    Next

    For Each subFolder In baseFolder.SubFolders
        getFileList localRoot, subFolder, ftpArray
    Next

    getFileList = ftpArray
End Function

Class FileInformation
    Public FilePath
    Public FolderPath
    Public FileExtension

    Public Sub setValues(localRoot, fso, f)
        FilePath = f.Path
        FolderPath = f.ParentFolder.Path
        FileExtension = fso.GetExtensionName(FilePath)
    End Sub
End Class

This will search all the FileInformation collected.

• File Path: f.FilePath
• Folder Path: f.FolderPath
• File Extension: f.FileExtension

Const localRootFolder = "C:\Program Files\MyApp Folder"

Dim filelist, f
filelist = getFileList(localRoot, Null, Null)
For Each f In filelist

Next

Answer 2

After more research and testing, I decided to use Command Line to find the path. After getting the syntax right, it works flawlessly. I have included my final script below. I hope this can help someone else. I went here, Running command line silently with VbScript and getting output?, to help me with using Command Line in VBScript. I then found this, https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/heyscriptingguy/2007/11/08/hey-scripting-guy-how-can-i-remove-a-value-from-the-path-environment-variable/, which shows how to use the Replace function so I could remove MyApp.exe from the path. I then added that to my original script and it worked.

' This script creates a shortcut of the MyApp application and places it in the Public Desktop folder for all users.

Option Explicit

Dim objExec, output, objDir, objWSH, objFSO, link, DesktopPath, AppPath, IconPath, DirPath

Set objWSH = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set objExec = objWSH.Exec("Where /R ""C:\Program Files\MyApp"" ""MyApp.exe"" ")
Set objFSO = WScript.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

output = objExec.StdOut.ReadLine
DirPath = Replace(output, "\MyApp.exe", "")
IconPath = (DirPath & "\MyAppIcon.ico")
AppPath = (DirPath & "\MyApp.exe")
DesktopPath = "C:\Users\Public\Desktop"

' If file exists define where the shortcut should point to
If objFSO.FileExists(AppPath) Then
 set link = objWSH.CreateShortcut(DesktopPath & "\MyApp.lnk")

' Define icon settings
 link.TargetPath = AppPath
 link.IconLocation = IconPath
 link.Description = "MyApp"
 link.WindowStyle = 3
 link.WorkingDirectory = DirPath
 link.Save
Else
 WScript.Echo "Program file does not exist"

 End If