How to create shortcut in Vista?

[Peter Redei]

I guess due to enhanced security restrictions Vista does not allow my program to create shortcut neither in the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup nor in the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop folder. Is any workaround? What is allowed for creating shortcuts? What are the pre-requisites? Does it need administrator privileges?
I do not have Vista, so any help will be highly appreciated.

Thanks,

Peter Redei

[Walt Thompson]

Upgrade and Vista

This is just another reason to wait for Microsoft's next OS offering. Vista and upgrade is an oxymoron.

[Pierre Bellisle]

Peter,

Under Vista, those folders have differents names,
for example, it may look like the following:

CSIDL_COMMON_STARTUP = C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\
CSIDL_COMMON_DESKTOPDIRECTORY = C:\Users\Public\Desktop\

Also, privilege elevation under UAP seem's needed, see...
http://www.powerbasic.com/support/fo...ML/014458.html

Here is some code to, at least, get them...

#COMPILE EXE '#Win 8.04#
#DIM ALL
#REGISTER NONE
#INCLUDE "Win32Api.Inc" '#2005-01-27#
'______________________________________________________________________________
 
FUNCTION FolderGet(CSIDL AS DWORD) AS STRING
 LOCAL pItemIdList AS ITEMIDLIST POINTER
 LOCAL zBuffer     AS ASCIIZ * %MAX_PATH + 1
 
 IF SHGetSpecialFolderLocation(BYVAL %HWND_DESKTOP, BYVAL CSIDL, pItemIdList) = %NO_ERROR THEN
  SHGetPathFromIDList BYVAL pItemIdList, zBuffer 'Returns TRUE if successful
  CoTaskMemFree BYVAL pItemIdList
  FUNCTION = zBuffer
 END IF
 
END FUNCTION
'______________________________________________________________________________
 
FUNCTION PBMAIN
 LOCAL sBuffer AS STRING
 
 sBuffer = sBuffer & "%CSIDL_COMMON_STARTUP = " & FolderGet(%CSIDL_COMMON_STARTUP) & $CRLF & $CRLF
 
 sBuffer = sBuffer & "%CSIDL_COMMON_DESKTOPDIRECTORY = " & FolderGet(%CSIDL_COMMON_DESKTOPDIRECTORY) & $CRLF
 
 ? sBuffer
 
END FUNCTION
'______________________________________________________________________________
'

[Peter Redei]

Thank you Pierre, but my problem is not the coding, I know how to retrieve from a CSIDL constant the path to the location. This is exactly what my program is doing. Nothing is hard-coded and the program works well in any Windows operating system but Vista. Since I have no Vista I cannot go forward here myself. The question is that Vista security might blocks the creation of a shortcut in some folders? I assumed it does so I wrote the following code that I thought will allow access:

#IF NOT %DEF(%ACLAPI)
    #INCLUDE "ACLAPI.inc"
#ENDIF

FUNCTION GiveDirectoryUserFullAccess(lpPath AS ASCIIZ) AS LONG
    LOCAL hDir AS DWORD
    LOCAL pOldDACL AS ACL PTR , pNewDACL AS ACL PTR
    LOCAL pSD AS SECURITY_DESCRIPTOR PTR
    LOCAL ea AS EXPLICIT_ACCESS
    LOCAL pstrName AS ASCIIZ * 60
    hDir = CreateFile(lpPath, %READ_CONTROL OR %WRITE_DAC, 0, BYVAL %NULL, %OPEN_EXISTING, %FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, %NULL)
    IF hDir = %INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE THEN FUNCTION = %false: EXIT FUNCTION

    pstrName = "Users"
    'ACL* pOldDACL=NULL;
    'SECURITY_DESCRIPTOR* pSD = NULL;
    GetSecurityInfo hDir, %SE_FILE_OBJECT, %DACL_SECURITY_INFORMATION, %NULL, %NULL, pOldDACL, %NULL, pSD

    ea.grfAccessMode = %GRANT_ACCESS
    ea.grfAccessPermissions = %GENERIC_ALL
    ea.grfInheritance = %CONTAINER_INHERIT_ACE OR %OBJECT_INHERIT_ACE
    ea.Trustee.TrusteeType = %TRUSTEE_IS_GROUP
    ea.Trustee.TrusteeForm = %TRUSTEE_IS_NAME
    ea.Trustee.ptstrName = VARPTR(pstrName)

    pNewDACL = %NULL
    SetEntriesInAcl 1, VARPTR(ea), pOldDACL, pNewDACL

    SetSecurityInfo hDir, %SE_FILE_OBJECT, %DACL_SECURITY_INFORMATION, %NULL, %NULL, pNewDACL, %NULL

    LocalFree pSD
    LocalFree pNewDACL
    CloseHandle hDir
    FUNCTION = %true
END FUNCTION

Unfortunately calling GiveDirectoryUserFullAccess with the path returned by the CSIDL did not change anything. Again, I was trying to call CSIDL_COMMON_STARTUP and CSIDL_COMMON_DESKTOPDIRECTORY.

Regards,

Peter Redei

[Pierre Bellisle]

I see, in this case the mention of Vista's
"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup"
and "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop"
in your first post meant the "All Users startup folder"
and the "All Users desktop folder" under Vista.

If nobody have a quick answer,
I'll try to do some test with Mike Stefanik's manifest code
and come back to give result.

http://www.powerbasic.com/support/fo...ML/014458.html

Pierre

[Cliff Nichols]

Just a thought....but could be trailing "\" or one missing

No time to test, but just a thought

[Pierre Bellisle]

Good news Peter,

I did some test with Mike Stefanik's "Elevated privileges manifest"
and my test program created the shortcut after I answered "Yes"
to the "Windows needs your permission to continue" dialog box.

[Peter Redei]

Thank you Pierre very much. I found Mike's post and just one more question:
name="My.Program.Name" should be something like
name="MyPrgrm.exe" or name="MyPrgrm" ? Did you have to do any other changes but the name?

Thanks again,


Peter Redei

[Pierre Bellisle]

Hi Peter,

For the test, I used the XML file as is without any modification.

[Peter Redei]

I reviewed the related Microsoft documentation (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb756929.aspx). It appears to me the requestedExecutionLevel of the XML should be "highestAvailable" instead of "requireAdministrator". Also if I understand that correctly the user will still need administrator privilege to install shortcut.

Peter Redei

[Charles Dietz]

Peter, I tried your code from the source code forum on my Windows Vista Home Premium laptop. Although after including the manifest, it did create the shortcut, the jellyfish pro editor I launched it from crashed. On rebooting, only lines, no desktop showed on the screen, and I was forced to restore from an earlier restore point. That boot did, however, correctly launch the new shortcut created.

To be honest, I've never used WritePrivateProfileString, nor have I used a manifest before. Maybe I just used it wrong... this is the code I used, where cgdSU.exe was just a simple, small executable to try it with.

#COMPILE EXE
#RESOURCE "test.pbr"
#INCLUDE "win32api.inc"

FUNCTION WithSlash(a$) AS STRING
    IF LEN(a$) > 0 THEN
        IF RIGHT$(a$, 1) <> "\" THEN
           WithSlash = a$ + "\"
        ELSE
           WithSlash = a$
        END IF
    END IF
END FUNCTION

FUNCTION GetDestinationFolder(lngLocation AS LONG) AS STRING
    DIM lpidlStartUp        AS LONG
    DIM lResult             AS LONG
    DIM szPathStartUp       AS ASCIIZ * %MAX_PATH
    lResult = SHGetSpecialFolderLocation(%NULL, lngLocation, lpidlStartUp)
    IF ISFALSE lResult THEN
        lResult = SHGetPathFromIDList(BYVAL lpidlStartUp, szPathStartUp)
        FUNCTION = szPathStartUp
    END IF
END FUNCTION

FUNCTION CreateShortcut(sExecutableFileName AS ASCIIZ, sShortcutName AS ASCIIZ) AS LONG
    LOCAL Res AS LONG
        
    Res = %TRUE
    IF DIR$(sExecutableFileName) = "" THEN
        MSGBOX "Can`t find executable file!"
        EXIT FUNCTION
    END IF

    Res = WritePrivateProfileString("InternetShortcut", "URL",        sExecutableFileName, sShortcutName)
    Res = Res AND WritePrivateProfileString("InternetShortcut", "IconIndex",  "0", sShortcutName)
    Res = Res AND WritePrivateProfileString("InternetShortcut", "IconFile", sExecutableFileName, sShortcutName)

    FUNCTION = Res
END FUNCTION

FUNCTION PBMAIN()
    'change the values as needed
    LOCAL fn AS ASCIIZ * %max_path
    LOCAL path AS STRING 
    fn = "C:\PBWin80\Setup Programs\cgdSU.exe"
    path = WithSlash(GetDestinationFolder(%CSIDL_COMMON_STARTUP))
    MSGBOX path
    CreateShortcut fn, WithSlash(path) & "Property Auction Ticker.url"
END FUNCTION

and my resource file was simply...

#include "resource.h"
1 24 "test.manifest"

[Charles Dietz]

I have some more results. I must be using this program wrong, somehow... and I hope someone can spot what's wrong.

Launching 'Compile and run' from Jellyfish Pro again, it crashed (actually, quit responding, forcing me to end it with task manager). But despite this, the shortcut was created, and on rebooting, the desktop displayed this time and the new shortcut correctly launched.

Launching 'Compile and run' from the PowerBasic editor, the first time I tried, it did not run, no shortcut created, and since I did not have options set to show errors (my bad), I changed the options, and then it ran fine.