Create a shortcut

Tim Golden > Python Stuff > Win32 How Do I...? > Create a shortcut

Introduction

The requirement: Create a shortcut on the desktop to the Python executable.

A small explanation. Shortcuts are stored as .lnk files in the filesystem, but they're represented within the shell as IShellLink objects whose IPersistFile implementation uses the .lnk file as its storage backend. Therefore, to create a shortcut, you instantiate an IShellLink object, use the methods of the IShellLink interface to fill in its details, and then call its IPersistFile.Save method to write it away to the corresponding link file on-disk.

import os, sys
import pythoncom
from win32com.shell import shell, shellcon

shortcut = pythoncom.CoCreateInstance (
  shell.CLSID_ShellLink,
  None,
  pythoncom.CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER,
  shell.IID_IShellLink
)
shortcut.SetPath (sys.executable)
shortcut.SetDescription ("Python %s" % sys.version)
shortcut.SetIconLocation (sys.executable, 0)

desktop_path = shell.SHGetFolderPath (0, shellcon.CSIDL_DESKTOP, 0, 0)
persist_file = shortcut.QueryInterface (pythoncom.IID_IPersistFile)
persist_file.Save (os.path.join (desktop_path, "python.lnk"), 0)

To update the shortcut once created, the technique is similar. This time, instantiate the IShellLink object, .Load its data in, update it, and call its .Save method.

import os, sys
import pythoncom
from win32com.shell import shell, shellcon

shortcut = pythoncom.CoCreateInstance (
  shell.CLSID_ShellLink,
  None,
  pythoncom.CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER,
  shell.IID_IShellLink
)
desktop_path = shell.SHGetFolderPath (0, shellcon.CSIDL_DESKTOP, 0, 0)
shortcut_path = os.path.join (desktop_path, "python.lnk")
persist_file = shortcut.QueryInterface (pythoncom.IID_IPersistFile)
persist_file.Load (shortcut_path)

shortcut.SetDescription ("Updated Python %s" % sys.version)
mydocs_path = shell.SHGetFolderPath (0, shellcon.CSIDL_PERSONAL, 0, 0)
shortcut.SetWorkingDirectory (mydocs_path)

persist_file.Save (shortcut_path, 0)