CreateShortcut Method

Article
07/17/2015

Creates a new shortcut, or opens an existing shortcut.

Syntax

object.CreateShortcut(strPathname)

Arguments

object
WshShell object.
strPathname
String value indicating the pathname of the shortcut to create.

Remarks

The CreateShortcut method returns either a WshShortcut object or a WshURLShortcut object. Simply calling the CreateShortcut method does not result in the creation of a shortcut. The shortcut object and changes you may have made to it are stored in memory until you save it to disk with the Save method. To create a shortcut, you must:

Create an instance of a WshShortcut object.
Initialize its properties.
Save it to disk with the Save method.

Note

A common problem is putting arguments in the TargetPath property of the shortcut object, which doesn't work. All arguments to the shortcut must be put in the Arguments property.

Legacy Code Example

Description

The following example creates a WshShell object and uses the CreateShortcut method to create two shortcuts.

<package>
   <job id="vbs">
      <script language="VBScript">
         set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
         strDesktop = WshShell.SpecialFolders("Desktop")
         set oShellLink = WshShell.CreateShortcut(strDesktop & "\Shortcut Script.lnk")
         oShellLink.TargetPath = WScript.ScriptFullName
         oShellLink.WindowStyle = 1
         oShellLink.Hotkey = "CTRL+SHIFT+F"
         oShellLink.IconLocation = "notepad.exe, 0"
         oShellLink.Description = "Shortcut Script"
         oShellLink.WorkingDirectory = strDesktop
         oShellLink.Save
         set oUrlLink = WshShell.CreateShortcut(strDesktop & "\Microsoft Web Site.url")
         oUrlLink.TargetPath = "https://www.microsoft.com"
         oUrlLink.Save
      </script>
   </job>

   <job id="js">
      <script language="JScript">
         var WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell");
         strDesktop = WshShell.SpecialFolders("Desktop");
         var oShellLink = WshShell.CreateShortcut(strDesktop + "\\Shortcut Script.lnk");
         oShellLink.TargetPath = WScript.ScriptFullName;
         oShellLink.WindowStyle = 1;
         oShellLink.Hotkey = "CTRL+SHIFT+F";
         oShellLink.IconLocation = "notepad.exe, 0";
         oShellLink.Description = "Shortcut Script";
         oShellLink.WorkingDirectory = strDesktop;
         oShellLink.Save();
         var oUrlLink = WshShell.CreateShortcut(strDesktop + "\\Microsoft Web Site.url");
         oUrlLink.TargetPath = "https://www.microsoft.com";
         oUrlLink.Save();
      </script>
   </job>
</package>

Applies To:

WshShell Object

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