How do I create a shortcut via command-line in Windows

Question

I want my  bat script  test bat  to create a shortcut to itself so that I can copy it to my windows 8 Startup folder    I have written this line of code to copy the file but I haven t yet found a way to create the said shortcut  as you can see it only copies the script   xcopy  C  Users Gabriel Desktop test bat   C  Users Gabriel AppData Roaming Microsoft Windows Start Menu Programs Startup    Can you help me out

User · Answer

To create a shortcut for warp-cli exe  I based rojo s Powershell command and added WorkingDirectory  Arguments  IconLocation and minimized WindowStyle attribute to it  powershell  quot  s  New-Object -COM WScript Shell  CreateShortcut   userprofile  Start Menu Programs Startup CWarp DoH lnk    s TargetPath  E  Program CloudflareWARP warp-cli exe   s Arguments  connect   s IconLocation  E  Program CloudflareWARP Cloudflare WARP exe   s WorkingDirectory  E  Program CloudflareWARP   s WindowStyle 7  s Save   quot   Other PS attributes for CreateShortcut  https   stackoverflow com a 57547816 4127357

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Cannot be done with pure batch Check the shortcutJS bat - it is a jscript bat hybrid and should be used with  bat extension   call shortcutJS bat -linkfile    n0 lnk  -target     f0  -linkarguments  some arguments    With -help you can check the other options  you can set icon   admin permissions and etc

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I would like to propose different solution which wasn t mentioned here which is using  URL files  set SHRT LOCA  userprofile  Desktop new shortcut2 url set SHRT DEST C  Windows write exe echo  InternetShortcut  gt   SHRT LOCA  echo URL file     SHRT DEST  gt  gt   SHRT LOCA  echo IconFile  SHRT DEST  gt  gt   SHRT LOCA  echo IconIndex  0 gt  gt   SHRT LOCA   Notes   By default  url files are intended to open web pages but they are working fine for any properly constructed URI Microsoft Windows does not display the  url file extension even if  quot Hide extensions for known file types quot  option in Windows Explorer is disabled IconFile and IconIndex are optional For reference you can check An Unofficial Guide to the URL File Format of Edward Blake

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The best way is to run this batch file  open notepad and type -   echo off echo Set oWS   WScript CreateObject  WScript Shell    gt  CreateShortcut vbs echo sLinkFile    GIVETHEPATHOFLINK lnk   gt  gt  CreateShortcut vbs echo Set oLink   oWS CreateShortcut sLinkFile   gt  gt  CreateShortcut vbs echo oLink TargetPath    GIVETHEPATHOFTARGETFILEYOUWANTTHESHORTCUT   gt  gt  CreateShortcut vbs echo oLink Save  gt  gt  CreateShortcut vbs cscript CreateShortcut vbs del CreateShortcut vbs   Save as filename bat be careful while saving select all file types  worked well in win XP

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I created a VB script and run it either from command line or from a Java process  I also tried to catch errors when creating the shortcut so I can have a better error handling   Set oWS   WScript CreateObject  WScript Shell   shortcutLocation   Wscript Arguments 0    error handle shortcut creation On Error Resume Next Set oLink   oWS CreateShortcut shortcutLocation  If Err Then WScript Quit Err Number   error handle setting shortcut target On Error Resume Next oLink TargetPath   Wscript Arguments 1  If Err Then WScript Quit Err Number   error handle setting start in property On Error Resume Next oLink WorkingDirectory   Wscript Arguments 2  If Err Then WScript Quit Err Number   error handle saving shortcut On Error Resume Next oLink Save If Err Then WScript Quit Err Number   I run the script with the following commmand   cscript  b script vbs shortcutFuturePath targetPath startInProperty   It is possible to have it working even without setting the  Start in  property in some cases

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Nirsoft s NirCMD can create shortcuts from a command line  too    Along with a pile of other functions    Free and available here   http   www nirsoft net utils nircmd html  Full instructions here  http   www nirsoft net utils nircmd2 html using    Scroll down to the  shortcut  section    Yes  using nircmd does mean you are using another 3rd-party  exe  but it can do some functions not in  most of  the above solutions  e g   pick a icon   in a dll with multiple icons  assign a hot-key  and set the shortcut target to be minimized or maximized    Though it appears that the shortcutjs bat solution above can do most of that  too  but you ll need to dig more to find how to properly assign those settings    Nircmd is probably simpler

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I present a small hybrid script  BAT VBS  to create a desktop shortcut  And you can of course modifie it to your purpose    echo off mode con cols 87 lines 5  amp  color 9B Title Shortcut Creator for your batch and applications files by Hackoo 2015 Set MyFile   f0 Set ShorcutName HackooTest   echo Call Shortcut   MyFile     ShorcutName     echo                                                                                                    echo Sub Shortcut ApplicationPath Nom   echo    Dim objShell DesktopPath objShortCut MyTab echo    Set objShell   CreateObject  WScript Shell    echo    MyTab   Split ApplicationPath       echo    If Nom      Then echo    Nom   MyTab UBound MyTab     echo    End if echo    DesktopPath   objShell SpecialFolders  Desktop    echo    Set objShortCut   objShell CreateShortcut DesktopPath   amp        amp  Nom   amp    lnk    echo    objShortCut TargetPath   Dblquote ApplicationPath   echo    ObjShortCut IconLocation    Winver exe 0  echo    objShortCut Save echo End Sub echo                                                                                                  echo   Fonction pour ajouter les doubles quotes dans une variable echo Function DblQuote Str   echo    DblQuote   Chr 34     amp  Str   amp  Chr 34   echo End Function echo                                                                                                     gt  Shortcutme vbs Start  Wait Shortcutme vbs Del Shortcutme vbs                                          Main Batch                                            cls echo Done and your main batch goes here   echo i am a test  Pause  gt  Nul

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Rohit Sahu s answer worked best for me in Windows 10  The PowerShell solution ran  but no shortcut appeared  The JScript solution gave me syntax errors  I didn t try mklink  since I didn t want to mess with permissions   I wanted the shortcut to appear on the desktop  But I also needed to set the icon  the description  and the working directory   Note that MyApp48 bmp is a 48x48 pixel image  Here s my mod of Rohit s solution    echo off cd c  MyApp echo Set oWS   WScript CreateObject  WScript Shell    gt  CreateShortcut vbs echo sLinkFile     userprofile  Desktop MyApp lnk   gt  gt  CreateShortcut vbs echo Set oLink   oWS CreateShortcut sLinkFile   gt  gt  CreateShortcut vbs echo oLink TargetPath    C  MyApp MyApp bat   gt  gt  CreateShortcut vbs echo oLink WorkingDirectory    C  MyApp   gt  gt  CreateShortcut vbs echo oLink Description    My Application   gt  gt  CreateShortcut vbs echo oLink IconLocation    C  MyApp MyApp48 bmp   gt  gt  CreateShortcut vbs echo oLink Save  gt  gt  CreateShortcut vbs cscript CreateShortcut vbs del CreateShortcut vbs

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link vbs  set fs    CreateObject  Scripting FileSystemObject   set ws    WScript CreateObject  WScript Shell   set arg   Wscript Arguments  linkFile   arg 0   set link   ws CreateShortcut linkFile      link TargetPath   fs BuildPath ws CurrentDirectory  arg 1       link Save   command  C  dir gt link vbs    shortcut txt lnk target txt

User · Answer

You could use a PowerShell command   Stick this in your batch script and it ll create a shortcut to   f0 in  userprofile  Start Menu Programs Startup     powershell   s  New-Object -COM WScript Shell  CreateShortcut   userprofile  Start Menu Programs Startup   n0 lnk    s TargetPath    f0   s Save        If you prefer not to use PowerShell  you could use mklink to make a symbolic link   Syntax   mklink saveShortcutAs targetOfShortcut   See mklink    in a console window for full syntax  and this web page for further information   In your batch script  do   mklink   userprofile  Start Menu Programs Startup   nx0     f0    The shortcut created isn t a traditional  lnk file  but it should work the same nevertheless   Be advised that this will only work if the  bat file is run from the same drive as your startup folder   Also  apparently admin rights are required to create symbolic links

[windows] How do I create a shortcut via command-line in Windows?

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