Where are IE Favorites stored ? 2

[JohnBates]

Hi,

I'm working on an ASP that will read thru the users Internet Explorer favorites (bookmarks).

Can anyone tell me which folder IE 6 favorites are in?
And what is the file extension?

Thanks, John

 

[Genimuse]

Do you mean you'll be looking at files on a computer in a local network? In that case under Win2k the files are located at:

C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Favorites

Under Win98/me they're located at:

C:\WINDOWS\Favorites

Understand that this will only work on a local network that the webserver has access to. You can't access user files via the browser side.

 

[hemal666]

hi i had a little dig around

favourites will be srored on the client in the following location x:\documents and settings\usrnme\favouriteswhere x is the main hd and usrnme is the users windows login name (adminsitrator by default). As to the file extension, it looks like a 'internet shortcut' so im not sure about how you can refrence it using asp.

Hope this has helps

hemal

 

[JohnBates]

yes Genimuse this is on an intranet

thanks to both of you for replying
John

 

[ChrisHirst]

you can't read the client browsers HD using ASP it's a server side operation. and the favourites folder is in a different location for each OS and\or user.

Win 2k for example it will be rootdrive:\documents and settings\username\favourites. That is assuming that the user is not on a corporate network and the path has not been modified using a group policy.
The only way to be sure is to get the reference from the registry, again different reg path for NT versions or Win9x or use a Windows API call, [GetShellFolders(lots of parameters)] all of which are beyond ASP.





Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?

 

[JohnBates]

"you can't read the client browsers HD using ASP it's a server side operation"

I agree, I may have to do this in VB, which is not as good a solution.

yep helmal666, these indeed are shortcuts. So... do you know if you can read an internet shortcut? I want to print/display each shortcuts Properties - the URL and the description.

Maybe I need to use the FileSystemObject object to process all the shortcuts in the folder?

Thanks, John

 

[ChrisHirst]

well you can open them as a text stream.
this is what you see

[DEFAULT]
BASEURL=http://www.google.com/
[InternetShortcut]
URL=http://www.google.com/
Modified=607A5CB30BF6C101AC
IconFile=

http://www.google.com/favicon.ico

IconIndex=1

But you can't do this with the FSO because the files are on the client side. It will have to be done with Javascript\VBScript or the WSH to parse each of the files and pass the textstream across.
It's a bit late in the day to be thinking about it right now (GMT) but the WSH might be the way to go because it can access the client registry




Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?

 

[Genimuse]

On an intranet you could -- at least in theory -- access the machines via the FSO, I think, if you knew the machine names. I've never tried to hack through the code required, though. If the webserver can see them on the network, anyway, it might well work.

 

[ChrisHirst]

Brain now almost working, genimuse is quite possibly correct. On an intranet the FSO may be able to access local files. The user account used by IIS would have to be in the Domain Admin group (assuming you are using AD) as Domain Admins are added to the Local Administrators group. You may be then be able to access the favourites folder using the the default share names [\\machinename\C$\path].

Mainly theory of course and assumes that no external access is possible as giving IIS admin status it not a good idea, and also assumes that some possible network security holes have not been closed.




Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?