Get target of shortcut folder

Question

How do you get the directory target of a shortcut folder? I've search everywhere and only finds target of shortcut file.

Solution 1

I think you will need to use COM and add a reference to "Microsoft Shell Control And Automation", as described in this blog post:

Here's an example using the code provided there:

namespace Shortcut
{
    using System;
    using System.Diagnostics;
    using System.IO;
    using Shell32;

    class Program
    {
        public static string GetShortcutTargetFile(string shortcutFilename)
        {
            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;
            }

            return string.Empty;
        }

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            const string path = @"C:\link to foobar.lnk";
            Console.WriteLine(GetShortcutTargetFile(path));
        }
    }
}

Solution 2

In windows 10 it needs to be done like this, first add COM reference to "Microsoft Shell Control And Automation"

// new way for windows 10
string targetname;
string pathOnly = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(LnkFileName);
string filenameOnly = System.IO.Path.GetFileName(LnkFileName);

Shell shell = new Shell();
Shell32.Folder folder = shell.NameSpace(pathOnly);
FolderItem folderItem = folder.ParseName(filenameOnly);
if (folderItem != null) {
  Shell32.ShellLinkObject link = (Shell32.ShellLinkObject)folderItem.GetLink;
  targetname = link.Target.Path;  // <-- main difference
  if (targetname.StartsWith("{")) { // it is prefixed with {54A35DE2-guid-for-program-files-x86-QZ32BP4}
    int endguid = targetname.IndexOf("}");
    if (endguid > 0) {
      targetname = "C:\\program files (x86)" + targetname.Substring(endguid + 1);
  }
}

Solution 3

If you don't want to use dependencies you can use https://blez.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/get-file-shortcuts-target-with-c/ But lnk format is undocumented, so do it only if you understand risks.

Comments

[Felice Pollano]

this does not relates to wpf at all, I removed the tag

[ilcorvo]

This is the solution I prefer: How do i get the path name from a file shortcut ?

[Phu Minh Pham]

Thanks! Now I just need to find out how to look for a shortcuf folder programmaticaly :)

[swdev]

I work on Windows 7 64 bit, and it fails in finding shortcut to VirtualBox installed in C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBoxOSX. It kept returning the target to be in C:\Program Files (x86)\Oracle\VirtualBoxOSX\VirtualBox.exe. Any explanation on this behaviour?

[yancyn]

Using Shell32 with this method only allow in single thread application. You have to include [STAThread] in main entry point. You will get exception in unit testing with this code because unit testing is not allow STAThread. see answer. There is also solution to run this code in unit testing see haacked.com/archive/2014/11/20/xunit-and-sta

[Admin]

OP asked how to get the target directory of the shortcut, not how to check if it is a shortcut.

[Dai]

This only works for trivial *.lnk files - it won't work for *.lnk files created by Windows Installer (which don't point to files anyway) as well as certain other kinds of *.lnk files that don't store the path as a single string - unfortunately the binary file format is kinda complex: docs.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/windows_protocols/ms-shll‌​ink/…

[jeffld]

Windows 10 is a piece of garbage. This is probably why there are so many problems with links on Windows 10.

[Zyo]

Didn't work in my case, the function already return null on my .lnk files.

[cursorrux]

Please explain your solution. Answers which do not have an explanation and are only code get flagged as low effort.

[Admin]

Please add further details to expand on your answer, such as working code or documentation citations.