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Problem with Shortcut "Specfied in the target path is not Valid"

Anonymous
2023-06-06T14:13:14+00:00

I need to copy a new shortcut to Users PC. I am trying to create the shortcut on my PC but I do not have the program installed.

"Office 2016 Standard x86" . I have O365 installed.

Windows will not let me create a shortcut to a path that does not exist.

yes i could create on their PC but then I have hurt their productivity to do it.

I have searched for answer but all the results are to fix a shortcut not create one for software not installed on the PC.

I can't believe there is not a way to do this.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Ramesh 176.1K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2023-06-06T14:26:16+00:00

    Hi Matthew,

    As a workaround, you can use a VBScript to create a shortcut to a non-existent target. Here's a sample script; customize it accordingly.

    Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
strDesktop = WshShell.SpecialFolders("Desktop")
Set oShellLink = WshShell.CreateShortcut(strDesktop & "\Word.lnk")
oShellLink.TargetPath = "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\Winword.exe"
oShellLink.IconLocation = "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\Winword.exe, 0"
oShellLink.Description = "MS Word"
oShellLink.Save

    Copy the above code to Notepad and save the file as "winword.vbs" and double-click to run it.

    It creates a Word shortcut on the desktop whether the target exe exists or not.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-06-06T15:58:23+00:00

    Ramesh,

    Thank you so much, that is exactly what I needed.

    will come in handed a lot.

    Thanks again

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