ShellLinks::CLink & ShellLinks::CUrlLink v1.24 2 C++ classes to encapsulate shell shortcuts

These 2 classes encapsulate the IShellLink & IUniformResourceLocator COM interfaces as provided in Win32. These 2 interfaces allow you to programmatically create the ubiquitous shortcuts (*.lnk files) as well as Url shortcuts (*.url files).

The classes provides a simple C++ wrapper over the SDK API. The classes also provides auto cleanup and is UNICODE enabled with build configurations provided.

The enclosed zip file contains the CLink/CUrlLink source code and also includes a VC 2017 solution to build a small demonstration app.

Copyright

• You are allowed to include the source code in any product (commercial, shareware, freeware or otherwise) when your product is released in binary form.
• You are allowed to modify the source code in any way you want except you cannot modify the copyright details at the top of each module.
• If you want to distribute source code with your application, then you are only allowed to distribute versions released by the author. This is to maintain a single distribution point for the source code.

Updates

v1.24 (20 May 2023)

• Updated copyright details
• Updated modules to indicate that it needs to be compiled using /std:c++17. Thanks to Martin Richter for reporting this issue.

v1.23 (23 March 2022)

• Updated copyright details.
• Updated the code to use C++ uniform initialization for all variable declarations
• Updated the code to use std::[w]string::data method throughout. This means that the code must now be compiled using /std:c++17.

v1.22 (22 March 2020)

• Updated copyright details.
• Fixed more Clang-Tidy static code analysis warnings in the code.

v1.21 (17 November 2019)

• Updated initialization of various structs to use C++ 11 list initialization

v1.20 (2 June 2019)

• Updated copyright details.
• Updated the code to clean compile on VC 2019

v1.19 (1 September 2018)

• Fixed a number of compiler warnings when using VS 2017 15.8.1

v1.18 (11 August 2018)

• Updated copyright details
• Fixed a number of C++ core guidelines compiler warnings. These changes mean that the code will now only compile on VC 2017 or later.
• Removed code which supported the CSHELLLINK_MFC_EXTENSIONS preprocessor define
• Replaced BOOL throughout the codebase with bool
• Replaced NULL throughout the codebase with nullptr
• Replaced ATL::CHeapPtr<BYTE> throughout the codebase with std::vector<BYTE>
• Added support for PKEY_AppUserModel_IsDestListSeparator property
• Added support for PKEY_AppUserModel_RelaunchCommand property
• Added support for PKEY_AppUserModel_RelaunchDisplayNameResource property
• Added support for PKEY_AppUserModel_RelaunchIconResource property

1 May 2017

• Updated the demo app to compile cleanly using /permissive-.

v1.17 (7 January 2016)

• Updated copyright details.
• Updated CDataList::FillConsolePropsFromRegistry to use ERROR_SUCCESS define.
• Updated the code to clean compile on VC 2015

v1.16 (21 June 2015)

• Updated copyright details.
• Updated the code to require VC 2008 or later. This means that the code can drop the requirement to use __if_exists to conditionally compile out certain functionality
• Added SAL annotations to all the code
• All the classes have now been put in a "ShellLinks" namespace
• Reworked the classes to optionally compile without MFC. By default the classes now use STL classes and idioms but if you define CSHELLLINK_MFC_EXTENSIONS the classes will revert back to the MFC behaviour.
• Renamed the CPropertyStoreForShellLink class to CPropertyStore.
• Renamed the CShellLinkDataList class to CDataList
• Renamed the CShellLinkHelper class to CHelper
• Renamed the CShellLink class to CLink
• Renamed the CUrlShellLink class to CUrlLink
• Added SetStartPinOption, GetStartPinOption, GetDualMode & SetDualMode methods to the CPropertyStore class
• Update the CPropertyStore::GetBooleanProperty to use PropVariantToBoolean
• Updated CPropertyStore::GetStringProperty to handle VT_BSTR values in addition to VT_LPWSTR
• All the methods in CHelper have been made non-const
• CUrlLink::Invoke now takes a HWND parameter
• Remove the CShellLink::Resolve method as it did not provide any real useful C++ encapsulation.

v1.14 (21 May 2011)

• Updated copyright details.
• Updated code to compile cleanly using VC 2005 and later
• The code has now been updated to support VC 2005 or later only.
• Moved all the code inline into shelllink.h and did a major refactoring of the code to provide a cleaner wrapping for the IShellLink and IUniformResourceLocator interfaces.
• Added comprehensive support for IShellLinkDataList and all its supported structures including EXP_DARWIN_LINK, EXP_SPECIAL_FOLDER, EXP_SZ_LINK, NT_CONSOLE_PROPS, NT_FE_CONSOLE_PROPS and EXP_PROPERTYSTORAGE

v1.15 (21 May 2011)

• Major refactor of the code into new helper classes of CPropertyStoreForShellLink, CShellLinkDataList & CShellLinkHelper. The two main classes of CShellLink and CUrlShellLink now provide various Get methods to pull out these helper classes
• Updated the classes to support the following Windows 7 properties: PKEY_AppUserModel_ExcludeFromShowInNewInstall, PKEY_AppUserModel_PreventPinning & PKEY_AppUserModel_ID

v1.13 (20 December 2006)

• Updated copyright details.
• Addition of a SHELLLINK_EXT_CLASS preprocessor macro to allow the class to be more easily added to an extension DLL.
• Optimized CShellLinkInfo constructor
• Optimized CShellLink constructor
• Code now uses newer C++ style casts instead of C style casts.
• Optimized CUrlShellLink constructor
• Updated the sample app to clean compile on VC 2005
• CShellLinkInfo is no longer derived from CObject as it was not really required
• Classes now use ATL's CComPtr for managing the various COM pointers
• Return values from functions now use HRESULT's instead of plain BOOL's
• The way the classes are now initialized have been reworked based on the way the "FinalConstruct" mechanism works in ATL
• CUrlShellLink class is now no longer derived from CShellLink class
• Fixed a potential COM reference count bug in CShellLinkInfo::operator= where we were making naked copies of a PIDL. Now the code makes a copy of the PIDL so that each CShellLinkInfo class instance maintains its own separate copy of its PIDL.
• Updated the documentation to use the same style as the web site.

v1.12 (26 January 2003)

• Fixed up #include of system headers so that they can be included in the PCH
• Moved initialization of the GUIDs from the code to the sample app.
• Fixed a copy and paste bug in the CShellLink::GetArguments() method. Thanks to "Bin" for reporting this problem.

v1.11 (4 April 2001)

• Updated copyright information 
• Fixed 2 bugs in CURLLink::Save and CURLLink::Load. Thanks to Martin MacRobert for spotting the problems
• Fixed COM interface leaks in CUrlShellLink::~CUrlShellLink

v1.1 (12 December 1998)

• Updated sample program to be called ShelLink.
• Fixed a bug in CUrlShellLink::Save where m_sTarget was not being set.
• Updated the trace comments in the code to include the function from which the function fails.
• Demo program now displays some info about what it is doing to the console window.
• Default build configuration is now ASCII Debug instead of Unicode Debug.

v1.0 (10 December 1998)

• Initial public release.