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How to create a desktop link to a website



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 20th 19, 11:33 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
No_Name
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1
Default How to create a desktop link to a website

I recall doing this once in the past, but I cant remember how.

I want to put a link on my desktop to open a regularly used website. I
thought it was as follows:

---
[InternetShortcut]
URL=https://www.google.com
---

(I am just using google.com as an example)

This is then saved as a text file.

I did this in notepad. If I save it as a .txt file, it just opens in
notepad. If I save it with no extension, I get a "windows can not open
this file extension" error.

What am I doing wrong?

Im using XP Pro SP3


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  #3  
Old January 21st 19, 01:05 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default How to create a desktop link to a website

wrote:
I recall doing this once in the past, but I cant remember how.

I want to put a link on my desktop to open a regularly used website. I
thought it was as follows:

---
[InternetShortcut]
URL=https://www.google.com
---

(I am just using google.com as an example)

This is then saved as a text file.

I did this in notepad. If I save it as a .txt file, it just opens in
notepad. If I save it with no extension, I get a "windows can not open
this file extension" error.

What am I doing wrong?

Im using XP Pro SP3



I don't know the answer, but I can point out a small
trick they use. File extensions aren't always what they seem,
even when you have the "show extension" turned on and you'd
swear you applied it to "all folders".

I opened Internet Explorer, and I see "MSN.com" is one of
my favorites. That's put there at install time.

OK, so I search for that, and yeah, it's in my Favorites folder.
Good so far. I look at the name, it says "MSN.com" and yet when
I do properties, you can see it's doing something goofy.

I open Command Prompt and use "dir" on the favorites folder
complete path name. I put quotes around it, even though you're
not supposed to need to do that.

What do I see

119 bytes MSN.com.url

So the file extension is actually ".url" even though I can't
see it in Explorer.

I was prepared to say at first, that the "http" in your
shortcut is a "protocol" and the OS should be looking for
a binding of protocol to program (handler). That's how
the browser gets started.

But what is wrong with that idea, is Windows is extension
based, and that idea violates the "triggered by extension"
principle.

So what you'll find, is files ending in .lnk, ending
in .url and other tricks. And rather than the OS "taking
the high road" and analyzing the "http" part to figure out
you want a browser, at least some of the behavior is related
to the file extension, which is .url in my example.

So the basic idea would be, where ever you saw a "file"
that was behaving the way you wanted, go and do a "dir"
on the folder while in the Command Prompt window and
double check your understanding of the extension issue.

You can try changing the .txt to .url and see what
happens. I don't know if the desktop.ini that causes the
Favorites folder to be a Favorites folder, is part of
this process or not. It might be. It really should be,
that every .url file behaves the same way, but who
knows for sure until you test.

Paul
 




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