creating application shortcut in a directory

Question

How do you create an application shortcut (.lnk file) in C# or using the .NET framework?

The result would be a .lnk file to the specified application or URL.

Answer 1

You could try this: http://www.geekpedia.com/tutorial125_Create-shortcuts-with-a-.NET-application.html

Answer 2

Take a look at the format spec and manually write it out - it's not very complex. Way better (IMO) than most suggestions that tell you to use WSH.

Answer 3

It's not as simple as I'd have liked, but there is a great class call ShellLink.cs at

This code uses interop, but does not rely on WSH.

Using this class, the code to create the shortcut is:

private static void configStep_addShortcutToStartupGroup()
{
using (ShellLink shortcut = new ShellLink())
{
    shortcut.Target = Application.ExecutablePath;
    shortcut.WorkingDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(Application.ExecutablePath);
    shortcut.Description = "My Shorcut Name Here";
    shortcut.DisplayMode = ShellLink.LinkDisplayMode.edmNormal;
    shortcut.Save(STARTUP_SHORTCUT_FILEPATH);
}
}

Answer 4

I found something like this:

private void appShortcutToDesktop(string linkName)
{
    string deskDir = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.DesktopDirectory);

    using (StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(deskDir + "\\" + linkName + ".url"))
    {
        string app = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;
        writer.WriteLine("[InternetShortcut]");
        writer.WriteLine("URL=file:///" + app);
        writer.WriteLine("IconIndex=0");
        string icon = app.Replace('\\', '/');
        writer.WriteLine("IconFile=" + icon);
        writer.Flush();
    }
}

Original code at sorrowman's article "url-link-to-desktop"

Answer 5

Is there any simpler way to do this ?
Couldn't someone create a class that had methods like createShortcut("app-path") or something !!