Reading the target of a .lnk file in Python?

Create a shortcut using Python (via WSH)

import sysimport win32com.client shell = win32com.client.Dispatch("WScript.Shell")shortcut = shell.CreateShortCut("t:\\test.lnk")shortcut.Targetpath = "t:\\ftemp"shortcut.save()

Read the Target of a Shortcut using Python (via WSH)

import sysimport win32com.client shell = win32com.client.Dispatch("WScript.Shell")shortcut = shell.CreateShortCut("t:\\test.lnk")print(shortcut.Targetpath)

I know this is an older thread but I feel that there isn't much information on the method that uses the link specification as noted in the original question.

My shortcut target implementation could not use the win32com module and after a lot of searching, decided to come up with my own. Nothing else seemed to accomplish what I needed under my restrictions. Hopefully this will help other folks in this same situation.

It uses the binary structure Microsoft has provided for MS-SHLLINK.

import structpath = 'myfile.txt.lnk'    target = ''with open(path, 'rb') as stream:    content = stream.read()    # skip first 20 bytes (HeaderSize and LinkCLSID)    # read the LinkFlags structure (4 bytes)    lflags = struct.unpack('I', content[0x14:0x18])[0]    position = 0x18    # if the HasLinkTargetIDList bit is set then skip the stored IDList     # structure and header    if (lflags & 0x01) == 1:        position = struct.unpack('H', content[0x4C:0x4E])[0] + 0x4E    last_pos = position    position += 0x04    # get how long the file information is (LinkInfoSize)    length = struct.unpack('I', content[last_pos:position])[0]    # skip 12 bytes (LinkInfoHeaderSize, LinkInfoFlags, and VolumeIDOffset)    position += 0x0C    # go to the LocalBasePath position    lbpos = struct.unpack('I', content[position:position+0x04])[0]    position = last_pos + lbpos    # read the string at the given position of the determined length    size= (length + last_pos) - position - 0x02    temp = struct.unpack('c' * size, content[position:position+size])    target = ''.join([chr(ord(a)) for a in temp])

Alternatively, you could try using SHGetFolderPath(). The following code might work, but I'm not on a Windows machine right now so I can't test it.

import ctypesshell32 = ctypes.windll.shell32# allocate MAX_PATH bytes in buffervideo_folder_path = ctypes.create_string_buffer(260)# 0xE is CSIDL_MYVIDEO# 0 is SHGFP_TYPE_CURRENT# If you want a Unicode path, use SHGetFolderPathW insteadif shell32.SHGetFolderPathA(None, 0xE, None, 0, video_folder_path) >= 0:    # success, video_folder_path now contains the correct pathelse:    # error