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I would like a GUI program capable to open/read a shortcut file and modify all of its properties, with total ease (like for example showing the original values in a editable textbox, and a button to save any changes made, preferably with some kind of good error-handling for syntax error and/or non-existent paths).

Requisites:

  • It must be a standalone program with a graphical user-interface. Not a command-line application.

  • The program must be focused to perform this task, preferably having a functionality implemented to drag shortcuts to the program's window. Avoid hexadecimal programs.

  • The program can run under Windows 10 x64.

  • The program can modify EVERY property of a shortcut file, including target file path, working directory and icon file (and icon index).

  • Freeware. But paid alternatives are welcome to discuss.

Please note that there is nothing useful in this article:

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  • 1
    What's unsatisfactory about the built-in handling (i.e., right-click on the icon, select PROPERTIES)?
    – Jeff Zeitlin
    May 7, 2019 at 12:35
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    @Jeff Zeitlin The built-in feature does not show some relevant info, like the index of the icon selected. Also I prefer just to have opened a program and drop there shortcut by shortcut to make modifications. Thanks for comment.
    – ElektroStudios
    May 7, 2019 at 12:37

2 Answers 2

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Instead of looking for perfection, I decided to develop by myself what I consider perfect for my needs.

Then finally I finished the initial release of Easy Link File Viewer, a simple, friendly, open-source shortcut file viewer and editor:

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List of current features:

  • Portable application. No installation is needed, and no post-configuration is needed.

  • Supports multiple program instances. You can open and edit various files at once this way.

  • Friendly file editor.

  • File Drag&Drop.

  • Visual Theming.

  • List with Most Recent Used (MRU) shortcut files.

  • Can read shortcuts with special (virtual) targets.

  • Apply changes directly to the current shortcut file, or save a copy of it to another destination.

Download:

https://github.com/ElektroStudios/Easy-Link-File-Viewer/releases/latest

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This is a partial answer as a Library is not a standalone application. But this library called ShellLink appears to be able to read and edit .lnk files. It would be trivial to build a GUI around this library however. You can also try the application talked about in this thread, however it's really hard to know how it works, what it looks like an if you can trust it so I would not bother unless you find it very important to try.

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  • First of all, thanks for answer. I think it's time to clarify some important things. In firs t point, I'm aware of the IShellLink native interface to create, modify, and resolve shortcut links. In fact, I'm a software developer and I have a shortcut file parser implemented for a commercial library (not for a GUI), but I have less and less time to dedicate to programming and to this, to design a GUI and use my library and do all the error-handling and unit testing. It's not laziness, just I found a better/faster option asking for a GUI program that is already made to accomplish this task.
    – ElektroStudios
    May 13, 2019 at 14:25
  • In second point, the application that you linked is not a standalone application, it's an script made in Auto-It that would need the interpreter to be ran. That will mean undesired dependencies. I appreciate your interest in trying to help, but I only would accept a GUI program.
    – ElektroStudios
    May 13, 2019 at 14:28
  • @ElektroStudios I totally understand, I was just as intrigued by your question as yourself so I did some googling and this was the only thing I could find, hence the "partial answer" opening. I wish you the best of luck to look for a good tool. If I have some spare time, I will code one myself
    – Thomas
    May 13, 2019 at 15:23
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    Because I feel that I'm not going to be able discover a standalone program for this, I started developing my own tool: i.imgur.com/iLJRB2r.png - that was made in some minutes but would require many time to finish and implement the "editable" part (to apply the shortcut file modifications). I will publish it in GitHub and share it in this thread some day. Thanks again for your help/answer.
    – ElektroStudios
    May 13, 2019 at 16:18

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