Windows Shortcuts Created Programmatically Don't Work

Question

I've used C# and Powershell to create shortcuts, but when they are created in code they do not work. I click on the shortcut, the cursor shows the PC is thinking for a second and then nothing happens. This is the Powershell code I was using:

$currPath = Split-Path -Parent -Path $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition
$tgtPath = ($currPath + "\bin\MyApp.exe")
$scutPath = ([Environment]::GetFolderPath("Desktop") + "\MyApp.lnk")
$wShell = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell
$scut = $wShell.CreateShortcut($scutPath)
$scut.TargetPath = $tgtPath
$scut.Save()

The C# code does essentially the same think using the IWshRuntimeLibrary. This little script basically just creates a shortcut on someone's desktop after they have downloaded my little standalone executable. I can manually create the shortcut and everything works fine. Why can't I do it through code?

I have created a few shortcuts and .url files on the desktop with the same name in the course of my testing, I'm not sure if that matters.

Answer 1

You often have to ensure the WorkingDirectory is assigned or else your program's Environment.CurrentDirectory will inherit the directory you called the shortcut from. Your program is likely closing due to not finding a resource by using a relative path, such as an icon: _notifyIcon.Icon = new System.Drawing.Icon(@"Resources\Icons\myicon.ico"); will crash when using a shortcut with a blank WorkingDirectory when the shortcut is launched from a process with a different working directory than where your .exe resides (e.g., the Explorer process that reads your shortcut and launches your program when you double click a shortcut).

You can test what a relative path expands to by using Path.GetFullPath(string relativePath), and you can see the current directory with Environment.CurrentDirectory. Launching a shortcut from the desktop with no Start In set I see the working directory as my desktop, meaning @"Resources\Icons\myicon.ico" will be expanded to @"C:\Users\me\Desktop\Resources\Icons\myicon.ico which is no good as the icon is somewhere else like @"C:\Program Files\MyProgram\Resources\Icons\myicon.ico".