How to get URL from .lnk shortcut file?

[info2knowledge]

Any idea how to get the url reference from a shortcut file using
vb.net? The program can access the file name (ending in .lnk), but not
sure how to take it to the next step...

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

Any idea how to get the url reference from a shortcut file using
vb.net? The program can access the file name (ending in .lnk), but not
sure how to take it to the next step...

Web shortcuts are INI files only. You'll find some samples which demonstrate
how to access INI files on the bottom of the page referenced below:

Storing and loading user preferences
<URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/dotnet/faqs/?id=userpreferences&lang=en>

 

[info2knowledge]

So, does that mean that each Internet Shortcut in the Favorites folder
has a corresponding URL in an .INI file somewhere? Any idea what that
..ini file would be called?

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

So, does that mean that each Internet Shortcut in the Favorites folder
has a corresponding URL in an .INI file somewhere?

No, the ".lnk" file's content is formatted in the INI format.

 

[info2knowledge]

Thanks! I finally got it (sorry, guess I'm a bit slow

The .url files are really .ini files and you can use the
getPrivateProfileString to get the values from that file...

Do you think it'll mess up anything if I insert additional sections &
keys into the .url files?

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

The .url files are really .ini files and you can use the
getPrivateProfileString to get the values from that file...

Do you think it'll mess up anything if I insert additional sections &
keys into the .url files?

I have never tested that, but I assume it won't mess up anything, especially
if you add them at the end of the files.