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I wish to find the target of a shortcut (.lnk file, not a symlink) in Windows 10 using C#.

I have searched for hours and found numerous methods for doing this, but two comments I found are memorable, that shortcuts in Windows 10 are somewhat different. The other is that it's trickier than it sounds. None of the methods I have tried work. I've referenced all the necessary COM objects.

They compile (the full programs do) but produce no output, with the exception of the Shell32 idea that has a permission error.

Examples of what I've tried (snippets)

        IWshRuntimeLibrary.WshShell shell = new IWshRuntimeLibrary.WshShell();
        IWshRuntimeLibrary.IWshShortcut shortcut = (IWshRuntimeLibrary.IWshShortcut)shell.CreateShortcut(filePath);
        return shortcut.TargetPath;
        // supposed to reference an existing shortcut, but no output
        
        ---or---
                    
        dynamic shortcut;
        dynamic windowsShell;
        Type shellObjectType = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("WScript.Shell");
        windowsShell = Activator.CreateInstance(shellObjectType);
        shortcut = windowsShell.CreateShortcut(LinkName);
        string Properfile = shortcut.TargetPath;
        // Release the COM objects
        shortcut = null;
        windowsShell = null;
        return Properfile;
        //no output

        
        ---or---
        
        string pathOnly = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(shortcutFilename);
        string filenameOnly = System.IO.Path.GetFileName(shortcutFilename);

        Shell shell = new Shell();
        Folder folder = shell.NameSpace(pathOnly);
        FolderItem folderItem = folder.ParseName(filenameOnly);
        if (folderItem != null)
        {
            Shell32.ShellLinkObject link = (Shell32.ShellLinkObject)folderItem.GetLink;
            return link.Path;
        }
        // permission error

They're snippets but convey the idea of input, procedure and result.

The only other lead I found was to a Microsoft document on the structure of a .lnk file. I've seen solutions that parse them (older versions) but would really like to stay with a modern API.

So I summarised (yep, Aus spelling) what I want, what I've tried and how the code failed.

To put in perspective, the goal is to have a window of shortcuts, but it seems I need to go back to the executable to get different sized icons in a ListView.

Robert Murphy
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2 Answers2

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This has been answered here by Alexey:

Add Application Manifest File, app.manifest, to your Solution's Startup project if not currently there (Right Click on Project -> Add -> New Item -> General -> Application Manifest File). In your app.manifest file,

replace this line of code:

<requestedExecutionLevel  level="asInvoker" uiAccess="false" />

with this:

<requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false" />

the requireAdministrator makes your app run with Administrator's Right that gives you the required access.

Danotsonof
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You can try on something like this:

    public static void CreateShortcut(string shortcutName, string shortcutPath, string targetFileLocation)
    {
        string shortcutLocation = System.IO.Path.Combine(shortcutPath, shortcutName + ".lnk");
        WshShell shell = new WshShell();
        IWshShortcut shortcut = (IWshShortcut)shell.CreateShortcut(shortcutLocation);

        shortcut.Description = "Discription";   // The description of the shortcut
        shortcut.IconLocation = "Path";// The icon of the shortcut
        shortcut.TargetPath = targetFileLocation;   // The path of the file that will launch when the shortcut is run
        shortcut.Save();   // Save the shortcut
    }

And this is how you would use it:

CreateShortcut("Name", PathToDesktop, InstallPathwitheExtention");
XtaXCraft
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