Comments on: How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C#

By: GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:17:33 +0000

My pleasure. And thanks for the additional findings!

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:23:58 +0000

Oh, forgot to mention:
1. I’m using .net 4.0
2. [STAThread] on your main method *may* be required too… see the SO thread please.
3. Most important – thanks for posting this!

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:21:45 +0000

Please see: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4490361/c-sharp-dllimport-of-msigetshortcuttargetmsi-dll-failed-with-error-1603-under
- the return value for MsiGetShortcutTarget is UInt32 and is important (you want to check that…), and
- the [Out] modifier is missing from the StringBuilder parameters:
/*
UINT MsiGetShortcutTarget(
LPCTSTR szShortcutTarget,
LPTSTR szProductCode,
LPTSTR szFeatureId,
LPTSTR szComponentCode
);
*/
[DllImport("msi.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
static extern UInt32 MsiGetShortcutTarget(
string targetFile,
[Out] StringBuilder productCode,
[Out] StringBuilder featureID,
[Out] StringBuilder componentCode);
and…
/*
INSTALLSTATE MsiGetComponentPath(
LPCTSTR szProduct,
LPCTSTR szComponent,
LPTSTR lpPathBuf,
DWORD* pcchBuf);
*/
[DllImport("msi.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
static extern InstallState MsiGetComponentPath(
string productCode,
string componentCode,
[Out] StringBuilder componentPath,
ref int componentPathBufferSize);

By: cosmin

cosmin — Thu, 19 May 2011 14:58:21 +0000

Thanks mate, your code works flawlessly.

By: GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 20:32:13 +0000

Sorry, I don’t have time to investigate this at the moment. I hope you’ll be able to find a method that works, though.

By: Goverdhan A

Goverdhan A — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 08:35:49 +0000

I am trying to use the class MsiShortcutParser.cs as I have the requirement to read the target path from link file. I tried using IWshShortcut.CreateShortcut(filename) which works in most of the cases. This doesn’t work for me when i try to read the target path from MSGames such as FreeCell, Minesweeper and Purble Place. Using of the class MsiShortcutParser.cs also returns me null path(MsiGetComponentPath is InstallState.InvalidArg). Let me know if there is anything more to get the “ParseShortcut” function work and return me the target path for MS Games.

By: GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:09:51 +0000

I don’t see why it couldn’t be converted to VB.NET. Are you asking me if I can do it for you?

By: TcoUpLoad

TcoUpLoad — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:05:22 +0000

You can convert that class into vbnet DLL?

By: Man

Man — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:42:53 +0000

Thank you soooo much, useful, clear and simple and works like a charm too. Perfect!

By: GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:06:37 +0000

Cool! Glad you found it useful.

By: Matthew Clark

Matthew Clark — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:42:27 +0000

Lifesaver! I had to convert this to VB.NET, but I couldn’t have come up with a solution without your article. Thanks to you, I went from a blank .vb module to a perfect solution.

By: GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:38:43 +0000

Glad it helped you. Thanks for leaving your comment.

By: JackZhong

JackZhong — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:06:45 +0000

Thank you very much,This problem has troubled me for long time ,now see your code ,wo have resolved
it,very gratefull to you!

By: GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:35:00 +0000

Well, I guess I’d trust the InstallState.InvalidArg and look that up. Maybe the product isn’t installed properly. Or maybe the shortcut you’re trying to open isn’t an advertised shortcut, but some other type. Maybe a Shell Namespace item or something like that.

By: Gaurav

Gaurav — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 06:37:11 +0000

Immensely helpful…Thank You…

I am trying to use your code on an XP machine (VS 2008 in a WPF application) along with the WshShell method but, have run into a weird problem. The return value from MsiGetShortcutTarget is 0 (indicating ERROR_SUCCESS, i.e. the function call was successful), but the InstallState returned from MsiGetComponentPath is InstallState.InvalidArg.

I haven’t modified your code (except for the namespace), so the error is quite puzzling…

Any ideas?

By: Dirk

Dirk — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:00:35 +0000

Your post was very very helpful!
My little “ToolBarFolders” tool would only be half as good without this information (but then again – it’s up to others to tell how good my tool is anyway.)
I’ll have to try it on Vista though – maybe I’ll fire up a VM later.

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:27:47 +0000

This post was a tremendous help. Thank you.

I am seeing similar behavior on Vista Home Premium that Greg reported. In my case, the MsiGetShortcutTarget fails on Office 2007 shortcuts that are in fact installed.

Question, does anyone have further insight on resolving advertised shortcuts on Vista?

By: GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:35:52 +0000

No problem. I haven’t seen problems with MS Office 2003 shortcuts myself, but I have seen Office 2007 shortcuts work. Maybe it depends on the install source (admin share, SMS, etc.)?

By: Greg Zelesnik

Greg Zelesnik — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:41:08 +0000

Thanks for responding! I am, in fact, using the WshShell method after the MsiGetShorcutTarget() returns null from parsing a .lnk file, and it works like a champ. However, it’s weird. It’s the MS Office 2003 advertising shortcuts that are returning null in my case, and I know they’re installed as I use them daily. The weird part is that the return value fromMsiGetShortcutTarget() call is 1603, which is ERROR_INSTALL_FAILED. The WshShell method returns the icon file for these links. Not sure what’s going on here, but I’m going to try it on some other advertising links that I know I have. Thanks for responding and letting me know that it’s not a fundamental Vista issue!

By: GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:25:27 +0000

I’ve got it to work on Vista Home Premium and Ultimate. Maybe in your case the shortcuts are for things that are truly advertised and not installed yet, i.e. there is no real target at the time you try to resolve the link? Also, I apply the WshShell method after MsiGetShortcutTarget() returns null (note I didn’t include that code in the downloadable sample). I assume you are doing that too?

By: Greg Zelesnik

Greg Zelesnik — Thu, 15 May 2008 22:08:17 +0000

Have you ever gotten this code to work on Vista? The MsiGetShortcutTarget() method is returning nothing for advertised shortcuts on my Vista Business OS.

By: GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 10 May 2008 03:04:37 +0000

Glad to be of help. And thanks for taking the time to comment as well!

By: Greg Zelesnik

Greg Zelesnik — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:38:14 +0000

This was incredibly helpful to me. Thank you for taking the time to publish this explanation and example on the web. I have been trying to figure out how to parse advertised shortcuts for many hours, and this was just the ticket. thanks!

By: Parsing those *.lnk type files - VB.NET version | Hodson Report

Parsing those *.lnk type files - VB.NET version | Hodson Report — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 01:51:57 +0000

[...] sure to drop by his site and grab the rest of the sample code just incase you need more info – even if it is done in [...]