 Here's
a quick (not to mention dirty) method of adding an Internet shortcut to
the user's IE Favourites folder or desktop.
The shortcuts for Microsoft's Internet Explorer use a simple ini-style
file containing a variety of information, but basically consists of a
fixed header, and the path to the desired URL. Shortcuts for IE4/5/6 can contain more information
such as the icon to use and the date added, but they
follow same basic design and extraneous information is ignored by earlier
IE versions. Therefore, using the technique below and
specifying the target 'special folder location', you can create your own
IE-compatible shortcut on any user's system. |
Option Explicit
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
' Copyright ©1996-2011 VBnet/Randy Birch, All Rights Reserved.
' Some pages may also contain other copyrights by the author.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
' Distribution: You can freely use this code in your own
' applications, but you may not reproduce
' or publish this code on any web site,
' online service, or distribute as source
' on any media without express permission.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Private Const ERROR_SUCCESS As Long = 0
Private Const CSIDL_FAVORITES As Long = &H6
Private Const CSIDL_DESKTOPDIRECTORY As Long = &H10
Private Declare Function SHGetPathFromIDList Lib "shell32" _
Alias "SHGetPathFromIDListA" _
(ByVal pidl As Long, _
ByVal pszPath As String) As Long
Private Declare Function SHGetSpecialFolderLocation Lib "shell32" _
(ByVal hwndOwner As Long, _
ByVal nFolder As Long, _
pidl As Long) As Long
Private Declare Sub CoTaskMemFree Lib "ole32" _
(ByVal pv As Long)
Private Sub Form_Load()
Me.Move (Screen.Width - Me.Width) \ 2, (Screen.Height - Me.Height) \ 2
End Sub
Private Function GetSpecialPath(CSIDL As Long) As String
Dim path As String
Dim pidl As Long
'get the pidl to the the specified folder item
If SHGetSpecialFolderLocation(Me.hwnd, CSIDL, pidl)= NOERROR Then
path = Space$(512)
Call SHGetPathFromIDList(ByVal pidl, ByVal path)
GetSpecialPath = Left$(path, InStr(path, Chr$(0)) - 1)
Call CoTaskMemFree(pidl)
Exit Function
End If
GetSpecialPath = ""
End Function
Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim CSIDLpath As String
Dim nameofLink As String
Dim ff As Integer
'get the user's 'special' folder location for Favourites,
'and append a trailing slash
CSIDLpath = QualifyPath(GetSpecialPath(CSIDL_FAVORITES))
'set the filename of the new link
nameofLink = "VBnet Home Page.url"
'despite it being an ini-style file, we can use simple
'VB file open and print statements to create the shortcut
ff = FreeFile
'open the file for writing
Open CSIDLpath & nameofLink For Output As #ff
Print #ff, "[Default]"
Print #ff, "BASEURL=http://vbnet.mvps.org/"
Print #ff, "[InternetShortcut]"
Print #ff, "URL=http://vbnet.mvps.org/"
Print #ff, "IconFile=http://vbnet.mvps.org/favicon.ico"
Print #ff, "IconIndex=1"
Close #ff
End Sub
Private Function QualifyPath(sPath As String) As String
If Len(sPath) > 0 Then
If Right$(sPath, 1) <> "\" Then
QualifyPath = sPath & "\"
Else
QualifyPath = sPath
End If
Else
QualifyPath = ""
End If
End Function |
| By passing CSIDL_DESKTOPDIRECTORY in the
GetSpecialPath() call, the path to the user's system desktop folder is returned (i.e. c:\windows\desktop), resulting in the shortcut being
created on the desktop. Obviously this is for IE owners only; you will want to check for the default browser, or ask if Internet Explorer is
installed. Netscape uses a different file method to store its bookmarks.
This method of installing a shortcut guarantees that on an NT system,
or Win95/Win98 system with policies in force, that the shortcut is applied to the current user's desktop and Favourites folders. |
