XPost: comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32, alt.windows7.general   
   From: egenagwemdimtapsar@jbohm.dk   
      
   On 2025-09-03 13:26, R.Wieser wrote:   
   > J.P. ,   
   >   
   >> But I don't know - if the "Start in" field is not filled in, does the   
   >> shortcut [or, perhaps more accurately, whatever's processing it]   
   >> assume it is in some prefefined location, such as %windows%\system32   
   >> or something like that, rather than where the shortcut actually is?   
   >   
   > Using IShellLink to create the shortcut I get the root-of-roots, the desktop   
   > folder.  And I can't edit the shortcuts target and working-directory   
   > properties anymore (the fields are grayed out).  Why ?  Good question.   
   >   
      
   The per-user Desktop is only the "root-of-roots" in the Windows   
   95-inspired shell object model .  In the real NT-based operating systems   
   such as Windows NT 3.x, Windows 2000 or Windows 11, the root-of-roots is   
   the empty root of the NT kernel object naming system, which contains a   
   folder named "\??" with symlinks like "\??\C:" This root is only   
   accessible using the low level NTDLL.DLL APIs and the driver programming   
   kernel APIs, such as ZwCreateFile() etc.   
      
   >>> If the shortcut icon uses an absolute path, then it can be copied   
   >>> or moved anywhere.   
   >>   
   >> Yes, but that's not "relative".   
   >   
   > Indeed.  Paul just tried to tell me why using an absolute path is the best   
   > idea ever and I should not want anything else.   
   >   
   >> R didn't say _why_ he wanted "relative shortcuts":   
   >   
   > :-)  You even quoted the reason in your post ! :   
   >   
   > [quote=me, initial post]   
   > (for use on a removable USB harddisk)   
   > [/quote]   
   >   
   >> all I could think of was that he wanted to be able to move/copy an entire   
   >> structure - shortcuts and targets - to a different location (say, another   
   >> machine, or a memory stick or external drive which might have a   
   >> different letter at times).   
   >   
   > Or move to another location on the same drive, or to another drive on the   
   > same 'puter.  All examples where relative shortcuts would be usefull.   
   >   
   > Regards,   
   > Rudy Wieser   
   >   
   >   
      
   One thing to consider is that removable hard drives can be formatted   
   with almost any OS supported file system, including the NTFS version   
   used for Windows NT 6.0x (Vista/Win7/Win8/Win8.1 for x=0/1/2/3), which   
   happens to support relative file system symlinks, but subject to the   
   arbitrary rule that to create an on-disk NTFS symlink, a user needs the   
   special privilege to create kernel namespace symlinks such as "\??\C:" .   
      
   Significantly older NTFS versions only supported absolute symlinks in   
   the form of "junctions", which were stored on disk in terms of the   
   kernel namespace name of the drive containing the target directory   
   (junctions cannot link to files), but I don't remember the exact cut-off   
   OS version that introduced general NTFS symlinks, which may be different   
   from the version that added mklink and other UI support.   
      
      
      Enjoy   
      
      Jakob   
      
   --   
   Jakob Bohm, MSc.Eng., I speak only for myself, not my company   
   This public discussion message is non-binding and may contain errors   
   All trademarks and other things belong to their owners, if any.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)