How to create shortcut link on the Quick Launch bar? 1

[dc2000]

Hello everybody:

Does anyone know how to create a shortcut link on the Windows Quick Launch bar? (That is the one next to Start button)

I found lots of documentation about Desktop, Start Menu, but nothing about Quick Launch. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated!

 

[hooka]

Hello dc2000. I am sure you would want the simpiliest way to do this so here it goes...

Make a shortcut of the application that you want to show in your quick launch bar on your desktop. Now drag that shortcut icon over the quick launch toolbar. That is all.

 

[ADoozer]

hooka, i think he means programmatically.

anyway, the quick launch feature is just a folder in the users area, so create a shortcut in that folder.

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\


If somethings hard to do, its not worth doing - Homer Simpson

 

[dc2000]

Yes, definitely programmatically So what you say is to simply create a link in that folder? Without use of any function like SHGetSpecialFolderLocation? Will it be portable to other versions of Windows?

 

[ADoozer]

ok, here is some very rough and ready code.

if you use it make sure you add some error handling

#include <stdio.h>
#include <shlobj.h>

void main(void)
{
	LPITEMIDLIST pidl;
	HRESULT hr = SHGetSpecialFolderLocation(NULL, CSIDL_APPDATA, &pidl);

	if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
	{
		// Convert the item ID list's binary
		// representation into a file system path
		char szPath[_MAX_PATH];

		if (SHGetPathFromIDList(pidl, szPath))
		{
			//must call CoInitialise
			HRESULT hrcI = CoInitialize(NULL);
			if (SUCCEEDED(hrcI))
			{
				IShellLink* psl;
				sprintf(szPath,"%s\\Microsoft\\Internet Explorer\\Quick Launch\\calc.lnk",szPath);

				// Get a pointer to the IShellLink interface. 
				HRESULT hres = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_ShellLink, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, 
									IID_IShellLink, (PVOID *) &psl); 
	
				if (SUCCEEDED(hres)) 
				{ 
					IPersistFile* ppf; 
		
					// Set the path to the shortcut target and add the 
					// description. 
					psl->SetPath("C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\Calc.exe"); 
					psl->SetWorkingDirectory("C:\\WINDOWS\\system32");
					psl->SetDescription("Calculator"); 
				
					// Query IShellLink for the IPersistFile interface for saving the 
					// shortcut in persistent storage. 
					hres = psl->QueryInterface(IID_IPersistFile, (PVOID *) &ppf); 
				
					if (SUCCEEDED(hres)) 
					{ 
						WORD wsz[MAX_PATH]; 
					
						// Ensure that the string is ANSI. 
						MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, 0, (LPCSTR) szPath, -1, wsz, MAX_PATH); 
					
						// Save the link by calling IPersistFile::Save. 
						hres = ppf->Save(wsz, TRUE); 
						ppf->Release(); 
					} 
					psl->Release(); 
				} 
				//if we initialised it, we gotta CoUninitialise it
				CoUninitialize();
			}
		}
	}
}

this will add a shortcut for the windows calculator to your quicklaunch bar.

it assumes the quicklaunch bar is active for the particular user, a few moifications will be needed to make it work with 9x machines.

THIS IS DEMO CODE ONLY, USE AT OWN RISK!

If somethings hard to do, its not worth doing - Homer Simpson

 

[dc2000]

Hey man, thanks a lot!