copying files pointed to be shortcut

[edself]

Hello,

I have a folder containing a bunch of shortcuts that point all over my hard
drive to various files. I would like to copy the files pointed to (NOT the
shortcut files themselves) to a folder on a CD.

Is there a way in XP, file manager, or some utility I can use to do this?

Thanks for your help!
Ed

 

[User66]

Hello,

I have a folder containing a bunch of shortcuts that point all over my hard drive to various files. I would like to copy the
files pointed to (NOT the shortcut files themselves) to a folder on a CD.

Is there a way in XP, file manager, or some utility I can use to do this?

Thanks for your help!
Ed

This is what I do:-
........
Open 'Windows Explorer'
Go to the actual place where the file is located in C: or D: or CD drive etc.
Use your mouse and Point to the file or directory if you want the whole directory to copy
Right Click the Mouse and select 'Copy' by left clicking the mouse
Now go to where ever you want to save the file, either floppy or drive or CD
On a blank space on the directory Right click your Mouse, and choose 'Paste'.
Do not choose 'Paste Shortcut'
.......
Using your 'Windows Explorer' you can open a directory on your C: or D: or CD drive
Then using "Windows Explorer' open another directory on any drive
Now you can 'Drag' a file or directory from one place to the other.
......
To Move the File, You can Cut and Paste just as easily.
......
Good luck

 

[RJK]

I think the OP is looking for a quick way to sort of do it in "one go."
...my nearest guess
*.wildcards (for filetype maybe) and XCOPY.EXE with the /s switch (or was
it /d ...), ...might do it but, I'm very rusty with that nowadays.
:-
....I expect one could knock together a "hot-key" / script to do it using the
Windows scripting host - if the shortcuts were all in the same directory,
....and the script started and stopped in the correct place e.g. dropped down
a line each time (viewing the shrotcuts as details).
....the script would toggle between the properties of a shortcut to gather
the real location and filename, and a destination directory to which the
file itself would be copied ...and then the next one etc. Though, unless
there's really is a large number of files to be aggregated in one place,
from various directories via shortcut properties, it wouldn't be worth the
time and effort.

It might be quicker to open two instances of Windows Explorer and use one to
manually dig around to find them, and drag them to a folder in the 2nd
Windows Explorer Window.

regards, Richard

 

[RJK]

....ooh ! it's all coming back to me now !

One could pipe the output of dir ?\*.??? > ...to a textfile, and then
bung the list it in a batchfile, do a bit of editing and copying and pasting
and make a batch file do all your copying / moving / deleting ...or however
you would like to do it !!

regards, Richard

 

[RJK]

....ahem ...or even with the /s switch (search all sub-directories i think)
e.g. dir /s ?:\*.??? > ?:\*.txt
....where the first ?:\ is the letter of the drive etc

regards, Richard

 

[edself]

Thanks for the input Richard.

I'm not adept with scripts. I've heard there is a one click way to do this
without having to fabricate a custom script each time, where regardless
where the shortcuts point to, I can select the group of shortcuts and do a
copy operation that will grab the files they point. Then, I can paste or
otherwise put the actual files (not shortcuts) into one directory.

I sure hope I can find a way to do this, because it would be very painful to
manually find each file pointed to by a shortcut and one by one copy them to
one master folder.

Ed

 

[NewScience]

Here's a Script you can play with:

---------------------------------
Set WShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set ARG = WScript.Arguments
Set objShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
Set objFolder = objShell.Namespace(ARG(0))

For Each objItem in objFolder.Items
If objItem.IsLink Then
Set objLink = objItem.GetLink
Wscript.Echo objItem.Name
Wscript.Echo objLink.Target
Wscript.Echo objLink.Path
Wscript.Echo
End If
If objItem.IsFolder Then
GetSubFolderLinks(objItem)
End If
Next

Sub GetSubFolderLinks(objItem)
Set objSubFolder = objItem.GetFolder
For Each objSubItem in objSubFolder.Items
If objSubItem.IsLink Then
Set objSubLink = objSubItem.GetLink
Wscript.Echo objSubItem.Name
Wscript.Echo objSubLink.Target
Wscript.Echo
End If
If objSubItem.IsFolder Then
GetSubFolderLinks(objSubItem)
End If
Next
End Sub

-------------------------------------
Save text in a filename.vbs. Then from Command Prompt, type filename.vbs
"foldername"

Let me know how you want to proceed in Moving the Target File to another
location.

 

[RJK]

Gathered up those files yet ?

Having thought about it again, and remembering into the long distant past,
you could do it with xcopy.exe ...which used to be an msdos external
command program file, that still exists in XP ...though God knows where it
lives, and whether ro not it's become an internal command. And you would
run it in a DOS box or a CMD box ! .....:-( ..mmm couldn't resist a
search C:\WINDOWS\system32 is where it lives ..mmm I've got one in BartPE as
well !

Of course you need to be familiar with filetypes and the ...concept of
filetype if you prefer, and hopefully you have not have been saving files
with filename only and no filetype ! ...if so you have then there's not
much hope ...unless you've got a few characters in all the filenames common
to all, or groups, of files, in which case you could probably use ?
wildcard/s.

Have a tentative look at xcopy.exe syntax and switches:-
Click Start | Run | type in the letters CMD and hit [Enter]
At the DOS prompt type

....hold on a minute !!!!!!!!!

Why not use windows Explorer Search e.g. for *.doc files, which will
list all the files with the .doc filetype in a directory OR the whole drive
according to how you use it, then you could drag them to wherever you want
!!

regards, Richard

....I feel so old, why does the simplest solution take several hours or days
to come to mind !!! ?????

 

[RJK]

....I'm getting really confused by this thread !
..it seems to be all over the place !

regards, Richard

Gathered up those files yet ?

Having thought about it again, and remembering into the long distant past,
you could do it with xcopy.exe ...which used to be an msdos external
command program file, that still exists in XP ...though God knows where
it lives, and whether ro not it's become an internal command. And you
would run it in a DOS box or a CMD box ! .....:-( ..mmm couldn't
resist a search C:\WINDOWS\system32 is where it lives ..mmm I've got one
in BartPE as well !

Of course you need to be familiar with filetypes and the ...concept of
filetype if you prefer, and hopefully you have not have been saving files
with filename only and no filetype ! ...if so you have then there's not
much hope ...unless you've got a few characters in all the filenames
common to all, or groups, of files, in which case you could probably use
? wildcard/s.

Have a tentative look at xcopy.exe syntax and switches:-
Click Start | Run | type in the letters CMD and hit [Enter]
At the DOS prompt type

...hold on a minute !!!!!!!!!

Why not use windows Explorer Search e.g. for *.doc files, which will
list all the files with the .doc filetype in a directory OR the whole
drive according to how you use it, then you could drag them to wherever
you want !!

regards, Richard

...I feel so old, why does the simplest solution take several hours or
days to come to mind !!! ?????

Thanks for the input Richard.

I'm not adept with scripts. I've heard there is a one click way to do
this without having to fabricate a custom script each time, where
regardless where the shortcuts point to, I can select the group of
shortcuts and do a copy operation that will grab the files they point.
Then, I can paste or otherwise put the actual files (not shortcuts) into
one directory.

I sure hope I can find a way to do this, because it would be very painful
to manually find each file pointed to by a shortcut and one by one copy
them to one master folder.

Ed