Shortcut Target Path Location

oneils · Dec 28, 2007

Hello, is there a way to have a shortcut point to two separate folders?

For instance, I have a "Videos" shortcut that windows vista created by default, that pointed to my "C" drive. Well, I ended up changing it to point to my "F" drive. My "F" drive, however, is now full. So I've had to place other videos on another drive (in this case "G"). Can I make my "Videos" shortcut point to both drives?

Thanks for any help you can give.

Brink · Dec 28, 2007

Hi Oneils,

Welcome to Vista Forums. :party:

Sorry, a folder shortcut can only have one folder location as it's source.

You could create another folder shortcut for the G location folder, say Videos 2, and place the shortcut inside the original Videos folder. This way it will be easier to keep together for easy access.

Shawn

oneils · Dec 28, 2007

Thanks Shawn. Me a sad panda...

Would have been more convenient. But I suspected as much. I like your idea though. I was just going to create two shortcuts for videos in my favourites links. But you're way means my links won't be so cluttered.

Again thanks for the help - you're fast!

Brink · Dec 28, 2007

Your welcome Oneils,

I always try to answer as soon as I can or able to.

Have a great New Years,
Shawn

Arcking · Feb 22, 2008

Is there anything you can do if the field is greyed out?

About half of my shortcuts (Desktop and Start Menu) do not work - you click on them and nothing happens. I've noticed that this happens with the shortcuts that have options grey-out. Any suggestions?

Works:

Doesn't work:

Brink · Feb 23, 2008

Hi Arking,

Welcome to Vista Fourms. :party:

Is the one that is grayed out a original shortcut that the program made? For a test, see if you can create your own shortcut from the EXE file and modify it's Target path. However, the Target is what the shortcut will open.

Shawn

Arcking · Feb 23, 2008

They were both made by their respective programs. Is there anyway to change where the gray-out shortcuts point to?

None of the grey-out shortcuts work, so I was wondering if there was a way to remedy this as a whole, or individually.

Brink · Feb 23, 2008

Arking,

Sorry, not from the ones that are grayed out. You may be able to for ones that you manually create shortcuts for though. If you can, then just delete the grayed out ones.

StupidUser · Mar 27, 2010

How do I find the location of the ones that are grayed out?

I have Vista Ultimate x64 on my laptop. I am the only user, I am the administrator. I just turned off UAC. I have an icon on my desktop which doesn't know about Program Files (x86) directory. That is, when I double-click it, I get this message:

Error: Configuration file "C:\Program Files\SAS\SAS 9.1\nls\en\SASV9.CFG"" is unreadable.

The problem is that the file SASV9.CFG is in the "Program Files (x86) directory. My icon is looking for the config file in the wrong place. The problem here is two-fold:

1) I can't find the desktop shortcut's target.
2) I can't change the desktop shortcut to search for the config file in the "x86" folder.

Any help? Thanks,
-SU

Brink · Mar 27, 2010

Hello Jeff (aka SU),

You should be able to create a new shortcut to use instead directly from the applications EXE file in it's Program Files (x86) folder by right clicking on the EXE file and clicking "Create Shortcut" OR on "New" and "Shortcut" . You can then move this new shortcut to where you like for easy use.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

StupidUser · Mar 27, 2010

Brink said:
Hello Jeff (aka SU),

You should be able to create a new shortcut to use instead directly from the applications EXE file in it's Program Files (x86) folder by right clicking on the EXE file and clicking "Create Shortcut" OR on "New" and "Shortcut" . You can then move this new shortcut to where you like for easy use.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Hi Shawn,
I got that, no problem. But how do I find the application's EXE file? In the good old days, I just right-clicked a shortcut, and click "Find target" (now called "Open File Location"). But for the shortcuts that are grayed out, there is no "Open File Location" right-click choice anymore. So how do I find the file location? (And why would MS take that away? Are they trying to make things harder to do?)

Edit: To clarify what I need: the folder C:\Program Files(x86)\SAS has about 75 EXE files - some of which I can eliminate by their name as clearly not the file to call. Which one is it? That assumes the shortcut points to an EXE file (there are other types of executable files in Windows I think, like .msc or .msi or something like that). After I finally locate the correct EXE file, what parameters do I add to the new shortcut I create? I'd like to use the same parameters as the one they created for me on the desktop (except change the location of the config file it looks for). But how do I know what parms the current icon is using? See the real dilemma here?

P.S. I hope I don't sound angry (stuff never comes out right on the internet). I appreciate you offering help.

Brink · Mar 28, 2010

No problem. That's not how I take this at all.

For most shortcuts, this is not a problem. It just depends on how the program created the shortcut when it was installed on whether that shortcut will show it or not. It's not hard to find the program's EXE file though. It's will usually always be in a folder named with the program or publisher name in one of the C:\Program Files folders.

You can also find out exactly which EXE file it is by running the program, then looking in Task Manager (CTRL+SHIFT+ESC) under the Applications tab. Right click on the listed program and click on Go To Process. It will then take you to and highlight the EXE file responsible for this program under the Processes tab. Right click on this highlighted process and click on Open File Location. You will now be at the EXE file's location with it highlighted.

StupidUser · Mar 28, 2010

Brink said:
No problem. That's not how I take this at all.

For most shortcuts, this is not a problem. It just depends on how the program created the shortcut when it was installed on whether that shortcut will show it or not. It's not hard to find the program's EXE file though. It's will usually always be in a folder named with the program or publisher name in one of the C:\Program Files folders.

You can also find out exactly which EXE file it is by running the program, then looking in Task Manager (CTRL+SHIFT+ESC) under the Applications tab. Right click on the listed program and click on Go To Process. It will then take you to and highlight the EXE file responsible for this program under the Processes tab. Right click on this highlighted process and click on Open File Location. You will now be at the EXE file's location with it highlighted.

Good tip, thanks. I found the executable file. It was one of the ones high on my suspect list. It's in a folder in the "Program Files (x86)" directory.

I created a shortcut to it and tried to execute it (I also tried executing it straight from its folder). Now I get a similar message as before, which says it can't find the config file C:\Program Files\SAS\SAS....\SASV9.CFG (notice it's still looking in the regular "Program Files" directory), because the -PATH option is not set. The message says to check the SAS environment options or command line options. I'd love to, but that stuff is still grayed out. How can I find out how the old shortcut started this executable so that I can see an example of how to set my new shortcut using the correct environment and command line options?

The funny thing is, I changed all the directories in the config file to read "Program Files (x86)", but the damn program can't find the config file. If I could just see the old shortcut's command line, I could fix this in a heartbeat.

Also, I continue to ask the (rhetorical) questions: WHY DOES MICROSOFT DO THIS TO US? Why would MS want to hide this from us? Are they trying to make it harder for us to get our work done?

Again, thanks,
-SU

Brink · Mar 28, 2010

You might consider uninstalling and reinstalling the program to see if that may fix this error for you.

You might see if using this on the original shortcut may reveal it.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/138644-command-prompt-window-here.html

StupidUser · Mar 28, 2010

Brink said:
You might consider uninstalling and reinstalling the program to see if that may fix this error for you.

You might see if using this on the original shortcut may reveal it.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/138644-command-prompt-window-here.html

It's a brand new installation. The install works on Vista x32, just not x64. Because it's passing a wrong parameter for the config file location.

Why would I go to the command prompt? I did that. Now what?

Thanks,
-Jeff

Brink · Mar 28, 2010

After you enable that option, right click on the orignal shortcut and click on the "Open Command Prompt Here" option to see what location it opens to. This would be the command path for that shortcut.

Do you have the option to select where you want to install the program during it's installation? If so, you might select the "C:\Program Files" folder instead.

Since the program only does this in a 64-bit OS, then the program may not be fully compatible in a 64-bit OS. You might check to see if there are any updates, patches, or new versions of the program available that may address this.

StupidUser · Mar 28, 2010

Brink said:
After you enable that option, right click on the orignal shortcut and click on the "Open Command Prompt Here" option to see what location it opens to. This would be the command path for that shortcut.

Do you have the option to select where you want to install the program during it's installation? If so, you might select the "C:\Program Files" folder instead.

Since the program only does this in a 64-bit OS, then the program may not be fully compatible in a 64-bit OS. You might check to see if there are any updates, patches, or new versions of the program available that may address this.

The program does run on 64-bit. Someone helped my classmate get it working - but I don't trust them and want to try to do it myself first. I may just reinstall into the Program Files directory.

Right now, I can't do the Merge because apparently something has my registry open which is preventing the data from being "successfully written to the registry". I cannot interrupt what I'm doing now, so I will have to try it later tonight.

Thanks for your help so far.

StupidUser · Mar 28, 2010

Brink said:
After you enable that option, right click on the orignal shortcut and click on the "Open Command Prompt Here" option to see what location it opens to. This would be the command path for that shortcut.

Do you have the option to select where you want to install the program during it's installation? If so, you might select the "C:\Program Files" folder instead.

Since the program only does this in a 64-bit OS, then the program may not be fully compatible in a 64-bit OS. You might check to see if there are any updates, patches, or new versions of the program available that may address this.

The program does not allow me to install to a different directory. It is a student version of a very high-end statistical program and it is significantly handicapped. Apparently, one of the handicaps is that it doesn't let you configure it on installation. I've a mind to copy the whole thing from the ProgramFiles(x86) directory to the ProgramFiles directory, but I'm sure that Windows will not allow that and Windows' internals - registry or whatever - will get messed up.

I cannot install the Open Command Window here applet you pointed me to. It does not install, even in Safe mode. Whenever I try Merging it, I get the message "Not all data was succesfully written to the registry. Some keys are open by the system or other processes." I even tried it in Safe Mode, but got the same message.

However, I have opened the command window running as Administrator and have navigated to the folder where the .lnk file lives (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\SAS). How do I find where it points and what it's options are in here?
Thanks,

Brink · Mar 28, 2010

You could use OPTION ONE to only have to press and hold Shift + right click to see the "Open Command Window Here" instead though.

Shortcut Target Path Location

Attachments

New Member

My Computer

My Computers

New Member

My Computer

My Computers

New Member

My Computer

My Computers

New Member

My Computer

My Computers

Attachments

My Computer

My Computers

My Computer

My Computers

My Computer

My Computers

My Computer

My Computers

My Computer

My Computer

My Computers