[Mingw-users] Windows Desktop Shortcut trick

[Earnie <ea...@us...>]

Since I had to figure this out with little help from Google and
Microsoft, what I did find was old and out-of-date, I thought I would
share this tidbit of knowledge.  Files that end in .url on your desktop
are typically created when your drag a URL from your browser to your
desktop.  They are known as "Internet Shortcut" files.  Unlike their
.lnk cousins which are binary object files the .url files are purely a
text INI style file so they can easily be created from a batch or script
file.  You can use these open an executable file similar to the
following example for MSYS.  The example file name is MSYS.url.  The
location of the file is "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop" if it is only for the
current user or "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Desktop" if it is for all users.  The
name of the file reflects the description property of the file so for
visual effects mind the capitalization and spacing of the file name.

[InternetShortcut]
URL=file:///c:/mingw/msys/1.0/msys.bat
IconIndex=0
IconFile=c:\mingw\msys\1.0\msys.ico
HotKey=0
IDList=

-- 
Earnie
-- http://www.for-my-kids.com