Question

How do you create an application shortcut (.lnk file) in C# or using the .NET framework?

The result would be a .lnk file to the specified application or URL.

Answer 1

It’s not as simple as I’d have liked, but there is a great class call ShellLink.cs at vbAccelerator

This code uses interop, but does not rely on WSH.

Using this class, the code to create the shortcut is:

private static void configStep_addShortcutToStartupGroup() {     using (ShellLink shortcut = new ShellLink())     {         shortcut.Target = Application.ExecutablePath;         shortcut.WorkingDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(Application.ExecutablePath);         shortcut.Description = 'My Shorcut Name Here';         shortcut.DisplayMode = ShellLink.LinkDisplayMode.edmNormal;         shortcut.Save(STARTUP_SHORTCUT_FILEPATH);     } }