How to Get the Description of an Internet Shortcut

[Charles]

I realise this isn't really the place to ask this, but everyone here is so
knowledgeable that I thought I would give it a try.

In my Favorites folder I have lots of Internet shortcuts; links with a .url
extension. I now know these are in INI file format.

When I hover over some of them, Windows Explorer shows me not only the URL
of the target but also a description. My question is, where does this
description come from? I've Googled a bit but the search words are generic
so nothing is turning up. There isn't an obvious Description key in the
[InternetShortcut] section in the file, so where does it come from?

TIA

Charles

 

[HillBilly]

Are you perceiving the filename of the Favorite as the text which is some
sort of description?

Here's one of my Favorites starting with how I see it using Windows
Explorer:

// the filename description of the Favorite
C# Reference

// the contents of C# Reference
[DEFAULT]
BASEURL=http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/618ayhy6.aspx
[InternetShortcut]
URL=http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/618ayhy6.aspx
Modified=103B080D9CB8C6017B

 

[Charles]

I first noticed it in a tool called Check&Get, which scans Favorites and
tests to see if they are valid. For each one it has a Description column,
which is occasionally filled in.

When I went to the Favorites folder in Explorer and hovered over one of the
entries I noticed that the pop-up tip had two lines: the first had the same
description as Check&Get and the second line was the URL.

Looking again I see this is actually very rare, and most entries in Explorer
don't pop up a description, even though Check&Get has a description for
quite a few of the sites.

I don't think it is Check&Get that is creating the pop-up description, I
think it is Explorer, but I don't know where it gets it from.

My Internet shortcuts frequently have the same entries as you have shown
below, but there is no Description entry.

Charles

Are you perceiving the filename of the Favorite as the text which is some
sort of description?

Here's one of my Favorites starting with how I see it using Windows
Explorer:

// the filename description of the Favorite
C# Reference

// the contents of C# Reference
[DEFAULT]
BASEURL=http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/618ayhy6.aspx
[InternetShortcut]
URL=http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/618ayhy6.aspx
Modified=103B080D9CB8C6017B

I realise this isn't really the place to ask this, but everyone here is so
knowledgeable that I thought I would give it a try.

In my Favorites folder I have lots of Internet shortcuts; links with a
.url extension. I now know these are in INI file format.

When I hover over some of them, Windows Explorer shows me not only the
URL of the target but also a description. My question is, where does this
description come from? I've Googled a bit but the search words are
generic so nothing is turning up. There isn't an obvious Description key
in the [InternetShortcut] section in the file, so where does it come
from?

TIA

Charles