How to launch wifi network shortcut using C#

Question

Hello,

I have created a shortcut in C:\Temp folder for Wifi Network connection (special kind of short cut)

I am trying to launch this using C#

System.Diagnostics.Process myProc = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
myProc.StartInfo.FileName = "C:\\Temp\\wifi.lnk";
myProc.Start();

When I run the above code, nothing really happens. when I set the "UseShellExecutable = False" and "RedirectStandardError = True", I am getting an exception saying "The specified executable is not a valid Win32 application"

I have tried to find the executable by pinvoking the "FindExecutable()" method, but it returns empty string.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Perhaps if you shell execute the .lnk?

Use rundll32?

Answer 2

You're missing a colon in your path. I created the shortcut on my desktop, and then ran the following, and it worked as expected...

System.Diagnostics.Process myProc = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
myProc.StartInfo.FileName = @"C:\Users\scott\Desktop\wifi.lnk";
myProc.Start();

Answer 3

using System;
// add a reference to the com component
// "Windows Script Host Object Model" for IWshRuntimeLibrary
using IWshRuntimeLibrary;

namespace ConsoleApplicationCSharp
{  
  public class Foo
  {
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      string pathLnk = @"C:\Users\scott\Desktop\wifi.lnk";

      WshShell shell = new WshShell();
      IWshShortcut shortcut = (IWshShortcut)shell.CreateShortcut(pathLnk);
      Console.WriteLine("target path: " + shortcut.TargetPath);
      Console.WriteLine("argument: " + shortcut.Arguments);
      Console.WriteLine("working dir: " + shortcut.WorkingDirectory);
      return;

    }
  }
}

Is this code able to extract the information from your wifi.lnk?

Answer 4

Yeah I have confirmed this doesn't work on WinXP. If you check the shortcut tab of the lnk file, you will find that the targettype is actually a GUID (which maps to the guid for the specified network card).

My guess is that the necessary guid translation isn't being handled properly by the shell when process.start is used under XP. You might have to try a different way of starting the shortcut under XP, such as using a Win32 com interop call to start the shortcut. check out pinvoke website for function header.

Edit: Actually i wasn't refering to the FindExecutable signature, I was refering to http://www.pinvoke.net/default.aspx/shell32.ShellExecute

also tried cmd.exe /k and that doesn't work either. pinvoke or .bat file are your only friends it seems bradman.

Answer 5

As previously mentioned, the target of the shortcut is a GUID, so FindExecutable won't be able to help, but here's the signature for it if you're interested:

    [DllImport("shell32.dll")]
    static extern IntPtr FindExecutable(string file, string directory, [Out] StringBuilder result);

Interestingly, running "start wifi.lnk" works from a command prompt, but this doesn't:

class Program
{        
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Process p = new Process();
        p.StartInfo.Arguments = "/c start wifi.lnk";
        p.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
        p.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = @"C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop";
        p.Start();
    }
}

Anyone want to venture a guess as to why?

If you really, really, really need this working, you could put the "start wifi.lnk" into a batch file and launch that from your program, but it's definitely a kludge.