#create shortcut

Full Script Available at AKT Developments

  One of the best uses of windows scripts is for installation and login scripts. Being able to dynamically create shortcuts on the fly, based on who is logged in or on what machine, etc. allows a system administrator to easily manage their systems and to provide usability directly to the user. This article will cover some of the basics of scripting and show how easy it is to create a shortcut via windows scripting, utilising the vbscript language.

This script was written to aid in making manula installations easier and assumes that the files are already on the machine, but could be easily adapted for making a installation script that automatically adds the shortcut at the end of the installation.

  Firstly we need to create a new shell object so that we can interact with the windows operating system and give windows commands to complete.

  Next we create two string values and assign them the input from a user dialog. The 'Inputbox' command shows the user a dialog box which has a text box that the user can fill in. The two values seperated by a comma are the 'message' the user sees in the dialog box, and the 'title' of the dialog box respectively.

Line 6 is getting the 'windows special folder' path of the 'all users desktop' folder. We could put in the direct path (usually something like "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop\") as a string but if windows is not installed on C: drive or your using windows seven and windows xp installation your script is either going to put the file somewhere obscure or not be able to write the file and crash. So using windows to find the file path is alot easier to maintain and works better on more systems, and also makes you script usable on future versions of windows.

  Next is the actual creation of the shortcut. 

  And the shortcut is created!

We can now send a message to the user telling them the shortcut is created and quit the script, or if the script is part of an installation we could continue with other processes.