I am trying to create a shortcut (on the Desktop) that contains a long argument string (> MAX_PATH).
The MSDN documentation clearly states that for Unicode string the string can be longer than MAX_PATH.
The resulting shortcut is cut exactly after MAX_PATH characters (that is the Path
+ the Arguments
).
Is there something wrong with my implementation or is this some Windows limitation?
procedure CreateShortcut(APath: WideString;
AWorkingDirectory: WideString; AArguments: WideString; ADescription: WideString;
ALinkFileName: WideString);
var
IObject : IUnknown;
ISLink : IShellLinkW;
IPFile : IPersistFile;
begin
IObject := CreateComObject(CLSID_ShellLink);
ISLink := IObject as IShellLinkW;
ISLink.SetPath( PWideChar(APath));
ISLink.SetWorkingDirectory(PWideChar(AWorkingDirectory));
ISLink.SetArguments( PWideChar(AArguments));
ISLink.SetDescription( PWideChar(ADescription));
IPFile := IObject as IPersistFile;
IPFile.Save(PWideChar(ALinkFileName), False);
end;
PS: OS is Windows XP (and above).
It turns out that this issue is in fact solely a limitation in the Explorer shell dialog. The generated shortcut file does not have a 260 character limitation. It's simply that the dialog refuse to display a Target with more characters than that. Presumably it calls GetPath
with a fixed length buffer.
procedure TForm11.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
sl: IShellLinkW;
pf: IPersistFile;
begin
CoCreateInstance(CLSID_ShellLink, nil,
CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, IID_IShellLinkW, sl);
sl.SetPath('c:\desktop\test.bat');
sl.SetWorkingDirectory('c:\desktop\');
sl.SetArguments(PChar(StringOfChar('x', 300)+'_the_end'));
pf := sl as IPersistFile;
pf.Save('c:\desktop\test.lnk', False);
end;
My test.bat
looks like this:
echo %1> test.out
The resulting test.out
goes right the way to _the_end!
Thanks all who contributed to this thread - it helped me immensely.
However, if I may, I would like to add the below information I discovered in crafting my solution:
On Windows 7 Enterprise ~SP1, it would seem that using VBS to create the shortcut there is still a limit on maximum characters in (at least) the arguments field. I tested up to 1023 chars before it got trunicated. I presume the same limit would apply to the Delphi method likewise.
On Windows XP Professional ~SP3, while the VBS method will create a shortcut longer than 260 characters (lnk file contains the data), it seems to trunicate it at about this number when executing it.
If you love us? You can donate to us via Paypal or buy me a coffee so we can maintain and grow! Thank you!
Donate Us With