In computing , a file shortcut is a handle in a user interface that allows the user to find a file or resource located in a different directory or folder from the place where the shortcut is located. Similarly, an Internet shortcut allows the user to open a page, file or resource located at a remote Internet location or Web site.
29-487: CPLINK and Win32/CplLnk.A are names for a Microsoft Windows shortcut icon vulnerability discovered in June 2010 and patched on 2 August that affected all Windows operating systems. The vulnerability is exploitable when any Windows application that displays shortcut icons, such as Windows Explorer , browses to a folder containing a malicious shortcut. The exploit can be triggered without any user interaction, regardless where
58-482: A PROMPT $ N:$ W$ G would instead yield C:DOS> and C:DRDOS> , respectively. A similar facility (using $ W and $ w ) was added to 4DOS as well. Under DOS, the absolute paths of the working directories of all logical volumes are internally stored in an array-like data structure called the Current Directory Structure (CDS), which gets dynamically allocated at boot time to hold
87-488: A DOS emulation on top of a Concurrent DOS - (and thus CP/M-86 -)derived kernel, which internally organized subdirectories as relative links to parent directories instead of as absolute paths. Since PalmDOS (with BDOS 7.0) and DR DOS 6.0 (1992 update with BDOS 7.1) and higher switched to use a CDS for maximum compatibility with DOS programs as well, they faced the same limitations as present in other DOSes. Most programming languages provide an interface to
116-406: A file in early graphical user interfaces , the user had to click on the representation of the actual file or executable in the location where the application or file was. The concept of disassociating the executable from the icon representing an instruction to perform a task associated with that file or executable so that they may be grouped by function or task rather than physical organisation in
145-494: A "folder link" or "shell link folder": a folder with the system attribute set, containing a hidden "desktop.ini" (folder customization) file which tells Explorer to look in that same folder for a "target.lnk" shortcut file pointing to another folder. When viewed in Explorer, the shell link folder then appears to have the contents of the target folder in it—that is, the customized folder becomes the effective shortcut. This technique
174-775: A curled arrow overlay icon by default, and no filename extension . (The extension remains hidden in Windows Explorer even when "Hide extensions for known file types" is unchecked in File Type options, because it is controlled by the NeverShowExt option in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile in the Registry. The IsShortcut option causes the arrow to be displayed.) Shortcut files can be used to launch programs in minimized or maximized window states if
203-422: A parameter /B (for "Batch"). This modifies the output of commands to become suitable for direct command line input (when redirecting it into a batch file) or usage as a parameter for other commands (using it as input for another command). Where CHDIR would issue a directory path like C:\DOS , a command like CHDIR /B would issue CHDIR C:\DOS instead, so that CHDIR /B > RETDIR.BAT would create
232-504: A simple pointer to a target file or directory is implemented in the operating system as a symbolic link . When the target is a program, many graphical user interfaces support .desktop and .directory files. The format of these configuration files follows the 'desktop entry' specification by freedesktop.org , and besides the location of the program they can provide an icon , a tooltip and other details. Macintosh does not have extensions for shortcuts. A file type called "alias"
261-485: A small file containing a target URI or GUID to an object , or the name of a target program file that the shortcut represents. The shortcut might additionally specify parameters to be passed to the target program when it is run. Each shortcut can have its own icon. Shortcuts are very commonly placed on a desktop , in an application launcher panel such as the Microsoft Windows Start menu , or in
290-584: A temporary batchjob allowing to return to this directory later on. The working directory is also displayed by the $ P token of the PROMPT command To keep the prompt short even inside of deep subdirectory structures, the DR-DOS 7.07 COMMAND.COM supports a $ W token to display only the deepest subdirectory level. So, where a default PROMPT $ P$ G would result f.e. in C:\DOS>; or C:\DOS\DRDOS> ,
319-465: Is used by Microsoft Windows for items like WebDAV folders. The advent of file system links in Windows Vista and up has made shell link folders less useful. There is another type of file that is similar to a .lnk file, but has the extension .cda . This is used to reference a track (song) on a CD (in standard CDDA / RedBook format). On Unix-like systems such as Linux and BSD ,
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#1732801902903348-632: The Distributed Link Tracking service for tracking the targets of shortcuts, so that the shortcut may be silently updated if the target moves to another hard drive. Windows Installer , introduced in Windows 2000 , added another special type of shortcuts called "Advertised Shortcuts." File shortcuts in Windows can store a working directory path besides the target path. Environment variables can be used. A hotkey can be defined in
377-611: The Microsoft Windows command line interpreters cmd.exe and Windows PowerShell , the working directory can be changed by using the CD or CHDIR commands . In Unix shells , the pwd command outputs a full pathname of the working directory; the equivalent command in DOS and Windows is CD or CHDIR without arguments (whereas in Unix, cd used without arguments takes
406-632: The file system functions of the operating system, including the ability to set (change) the working directory of the program. In the C language , the POSIX function chdir() effects the system call which changes the working directory. Its argument is a text string with a path to the new directory, either absolute or relative to the old one. Where available, it can be called by a process to set its working directory. There are similar functions in other languages. For example, in Visual Basic it
435-465: The working directory of a process is a directory of a hierarchical file system , if any, dynamically associated with the process. It is sometimes called the current working directory (CWD) , e.g. the BSD getcwd function, or just current directory . When a process refers to a file using a simple file name or relative path (as opposed to a file designated by a full path from a root directory ),
464-538: The ability to store the working directory. COMMAND.COM in DR-DOS 7.02 and higher provides ECHOS , a variant of the ECHO command omitting the terminating linefeed. This can be used to create a temporary batchjob storing the working directory in an environment variable like CD for later use, for example: Alternatively, under Multiuser DOS and DR-DOS 7.02 and higher, various internal and external commands support
493-516: The file structure was first described in the research paper "A Task Oriented Front End For The Windows Graphical User Interface", by Mike Roberts, published in 1991 by Kingston University and presented to both Microsoft and Xerox EuroPARC that same year under an academia/business technology sharing agreement. A simplified form of this research was incorporated into System 7 in 1991, and four years later into Windows 95 . Windows LNK .desktop files Working directory In computing ,
522-455: The file system, through Explorer. Beginning with Windows 7 , some shortcuts also store Application User Model IDs (AppUserModelIDs). Instead of the target command line, AppUserModelIDs may directly be used to launch applications. Shortcuts with AppUserModelIDs are used by some desktop programs and all WinRT Modern/Universal Windows Platform apps for launching. Although Windows does not provide convenient tools to create it, Explorer supports
551-648: The main menu of a desktop environment . The functional equivalent in the Macintosh operating system is called an alias . Unix-like systems have symbolic links which point to a target file, and often support .desktop files which provide additional configuration details. File shortcuts (also known as shell links ) were introduced in Windows 95 . Microsoft Windows uses .lnk as the filename extension for shortcuts to local files, and .url for shortcuts to remote files, like web pages. Commonly referred to as "shortcuts" or "link files", both are displayed with
580-434: The names of aliases are no longer italicized, but the arrow badge remains. Additionally, an alias retains its dynamic reference to an object and does not have to be specified even when calling files on remote servers. In addition, symbolic links can be created within the Unix subsystem. The Safari browser has its own property list -based format, .webloc , for storing Internet URLs. To execute an application or render
609-420: The necessary number of slots for all logical drives (or as defined by LASTDRIVE ). This structure imposes a length-limit of 66 characters on the full path of each working directory, and thus implicitly also limits the maximum possible depth of subdirectories. DOS Plus and older issues of DR DOS (up to DR DOS 6.0 , with BDOS 6.7 in 1991) had no such limitation due to their implementation using
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#1732801902903638-461: The program supports it. Microsoft Windows .lnk files operate as Windows Explorer extensions, rather than file system extensions. As a shell extension, .lnk files cannot be used in place of the file except in Windows Explorer, and have other uses in Windows Explorer in addition to use as a shortcut to a local file (or GUID). These files also begin with "L". Although shortcuts, when created, point to specific files or folders, they may break if
667-425: The reference is interpreted relative to the working directory of the process. So for example a process with working directory /rabbit-shoes that asks to create the file foo.txt will end up creating the file /rabbit-shoes/foo.txt . In most computer file systems, every directory has an entry (usually named " . ") which points to the directory itself. In most DOS and UNIX command shells , as well as in
696-444: The shortcut file is located. In June 2010, VirusBlokAda reported detection of zero-day attack malware called Stuxnet that exploited the vulnerability to install a rootkit that snooped Siemens ' SCADA systems WinCC and PCS 7 . According to Symantec it is the first worm designed to reprogram industrial systems and not only to spy on them. Computer shortcut#Microsoft Windows Shortcuts are typically implemented as
725-626: The shortcut's properties for shortcuts that are located in the Start Menu folders, pinned to the Taskbar or the Desktop. In Windows 2000 onwards, file shortcuts can store comments which are displayed as a tooltip when the mouse hovers over the shortcut. Generally, the effect of double-clicking a shortcut is intended to be the same as double-clicking the application or document to which it refers, but Windows shortcuts contain separate properties for
754-436: The target file and the "Start In" directory. If the latter parameter is not entered, attempting to use the shortcut for some programs may generate "missing DLL" errors not present when the application is accessed directly. File system links can also be created on Windows systems (Vista and up). They serve a similar function, although they are a feature of the file system . Windows shortcuts are files and work independently of
783-456: The target is moved to another location. When a shortcut file that points to a nonexistent target is opened, Explorer will attempt to repair the shortcut. Windows 9x -based versions of Windows use a simple search algorithm to fix broken shortcuts. On Windows NT -based operating systems and the NTFS file system, the target object's unique identifier is stored in the shortcut file and Windows can use
812-588: The user back to their home directory ). The environment variable PWD (in Unix/Linux shells), or the pseudo-environment variables CD (in Windows COMMAND.COM and cmd.exe , but not in OS/2 and DOS), or _CWD , _CWDS , _CWP and _CWPS (under 4DOS , 4OS2 , 4NT etc.) can be used in scripts, so that one need not start an external program. Microsoft Windows file shortcuts have
841-617: Was introduced in Macintosh System 7 ; it tracks information like inode number to handle moves. Aliases in System 7 through Mac OS 9 were distinguished from other files by using names in italics. In Mac OS 8.5 and later, another distinguishing mark was added: an "alias arrow" – a black arrow with a thin, white border – similar to that used for shortcuts in Microsoft Windows. In Mac OS X ,
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