VB and working with IE bookmarks

RicardoSmith

I want to write a little VB app to sort out my IE bookmarks. Anyone know, or has sample code, that can get the properties of IE bookmarks etc.

The Corinthian

An IE Internet shortcut file appears to essentially be just a text file. For example, ofr this page I got one that read:

[DEFAULT]
BASEURL=http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=75664
[InternetShortcut]
URL=http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=75664
Modified=601908BD16B4C201CB

As such you could alter the attributes of the file by reading/writing to it using:

Open strShortcut For Input As #1

...and...

Open strShortcut For Output As #1

As for renaming the file you might use code such as:

FileSystem.FileCopy strOldShortcut, strNewShortcut
FileSystem.Kill strOldShortcut

There's probably a bit more to it than this, but with a bit of trial and error, you'll figure it out.

RicardoSmith

Thanks for the info, someone else has just told me that too. Its too easy! Doh! I thought I was going to need an api or something. Finally going to whip my bookmarks into shape!

The Corinthian

In fairness, I think there may be a little more to it than that as I should be able to create a Fav file with Notepad. However, as Fav files don’t appear to have extensions, they are not automatically recognised when I create them thusly.

My guess is there’s a bit more to them (they’re registered with Windoze upon creation, or some such), but I suspect you’ll be able to find that out with a little Googling.

Anyhow, hope I helped.

Talliesin

Originally posted by The Corinthian
However, as Fav files don’t appear to have extensions, they are not automatically recognised when I create them thusly.

Fav files are .url files, the same files you get when you drag a link to a folder, etc.

The .url extension isn't shown, even when you shell is set to always show extensions. The same is true of .lnk (shortcut) files. Indeed the concept is very much that .url files are a variant of .lnk files (hence they are referred to as "Internet Shortcut" files), and some of the APIs etc. for shortcuts can also be used with them.

RicardoSmith

Ok thanks. Thats a useful tack I can use in dealing with them.

Hobbes

Originally posted by Talliesin
Fav files are .url files, the same files you get when you drag a link to a folder, etc.

The .url extension isn't shown, even when you shell is set to always show extensions. The same is true of .lnk (shortcut) files. Indeed the concept is very much that .url files are a variant of .lnk files (hence they are referred to as "Internet Shortcut" files), and some of the APIs etc. for shortcuts can also be used with them.

So what happens if I make a link myLink.txt.url ?

Isn't that a bit of a security risk?

Talliesin

Shortcuts (Internet or not) do carry a slight risk of being used to impersonate file types other than those they actually point to (more so if you set the icon to one other than the default, which you can do).

However they don't work against basic good security practices.