HOWTO: Create Shortcuts (Shell Links) within Windows

 Last reviewed: October 30, 1997
Article ID: Q155303
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Visual Basic Control Creation, Learning, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, version 5.0
  • Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions of Microsoft Visual Basic, 32-bit only, for Windows, version 4.0

SUMMARY

Sometimes it is necessary to create shortcuts to your applications or documents somewhere on another user's system. Do this by calling the fCreateShellLink API function found in the STKIT432.DLL file that ships with the Setup Kit in Microsoft Visual Basic version 4.0 for Windows. Below are the steps that show you how to do this.

MORE INFORMATION

Shell links, also known as shortcuts, are a convenient way to reference objects within the shell name space (the hierarchical structure of objects in the Microsoft Windows 95 shell) without having to keep track of the name and location of the original object. Shell links are referred to as shortcuts in the Context menu (that appears when you right-click an object) of shell objects. They are implemented internally via the IShellLink interface.

Steps for Creating a Shell Link (Shortcut) to the Desktop

  1. Start a new project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.

  2. Add a Command button (Command1) to Form1.

  3. Add the following code to the General Declarations section of Form1:

    Option Explicit 

          Private Declare Function fCreateShellLink Lib "STKIT432.DLL" (ByVal _

            lpstrFolderName As String, ByVal lpstrLinkName As String, ByVal _
        lpstrLinkPath As String, ByVal lpstrLinkArgs As String) As Long

      Sub Command1_Click()

        Dim lReturn As Long

        'Add to Desktop
        lReturn = fCreateShellLink("..\..\Desktop", _
        "Shortcut to Calculator", "c:\Winnt\system32\calc.exe", "")

        'Add to Program Menu Group
        lReturn = fCreateShellLink("", "Shortcut to Calculator", _
        "c:\Winnt\system32\calc.exe", "")

        'Add to Startup Group
        lReturn = fCreateShellLink("\Startup", "Shortcut to Calculator", _
        "c:\Winnt\system32\calc.exe", "")

      End Sub


  4. Press the F5 key to run the project, and then click the Command button.

    

NOTE: If you are running Windows NT, the above example works correctly.
If you are running Windows 95, change the Calc.exe path to the following:



   C:\Windows\Calc.exe


This creates a shortcut to the Calc.exe file on the user's desktop, a
program group, and a reference to it in the Startup items.



REFERENCES

 


Please refer to the sample on the Visual Basic 5.0 CD-ROM:
Tools\Unsupprt\ShellLnk


For additional information, please see the following article in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base:



   ARTICLE-ID: Q140443
   TITLE     : How To Create a Shortcut on the Desktop

 

Keywords          : APrgOther vb432 VB4WIN vb5all vb5howto
Version           : WINDOWS:4.0,5.0
Platform          : NT WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbhowto


	
			
	















	






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	Last reviewed:  October 30, 1997
	

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