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Yes, its got everything to do with less effort and shorter routes, but the Windows Shortcut has some interesting hidden attributes which can increase productivity and with a fertile imagination maintain confidentiality.
History
The ‘Shortcut’ made its debut in Windows 95 following research carried out by Kingston University in 1991. Its roots however can be traced back to the 4.2 BSD release of Berkeley Unix in 1983 where their implementation was and still is, in the Unix community, referred to as a Symbolic Link.
 FunctionalityIn essence the ‘Shortcut’ is a small file located in a convenient and easily accessible place that essentially contains the name and location of another file (target file) that is otherwise difficult or time-consuming to locate. Due to its representation of the target file, its function is actually that of the target file, however, deleting the shortcut file has absolutely no effect on the target file.
In a Graphical User Environment such as MS Windows, a shortcut is represented graphically by a small square image aptly called the icon. That’s not to say all icons are Shortcuts – Oh no! A little North-Eastward pointing arrow at the bottom left of the icon will make out the Shortcuts from their near look-alikes.
Can’t think of an application yet ? Here’s one we can all do with. The System Restore Point Utility (SRP). This is how to get to it normally.
Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore. With a shortcut it’s either a double-click of an icon on your Desktop, or a single-click on your Quick launch bar or Start menu.
Shortcut creation
Like everything else Windows, there’s always more than one way to getting it done. Shortcuts are no exception, sporting no less than four diverse methods of creating these indispensable little files. Each method has its perks but generally the Copy/Paste-Shortcut method is the one most users default to exercising. This is probably due to the flexibility provided and its relative ease of use.
The ‘New-Shortcut’ method is initiated by right-clicking the location you wish to plant your shortcut and selecting ‘New’ > ‘Shortcut’. This instantly walks you thru a straightforward wizard to select your target file and suitably name your newly created shortcut. This method is normally chosen if you begin the creation process from the place (Desktop or Folder) you wish to plant your shortcut.
The ‘Send-To Desktop’ method lets you create a shortcut on the Desktop by initiating the process from the target file. Right-click the target file and select ‘Send-To > Desktop’ to complete this process.
The Drag & Drop method requires that both the target file and intended shortcut location are visible on the screen at the same time. Once in view, drag the target file onto the location where you wish to place the new shortcut and voila.
The Copy/Paste-Shortcut method is the most intuitive method since it closely resembles the typical Copy/Paste function. The only difference is in the final step where you will need to select ‘Paste Shortcut’.
Dressing the shortcut
Once created, the shortcut icon can be easily changed. Right-click the newly created shortcut and select Properties > Change Icon. A dialog box containing a substantial variety of icons appears and confirming your selection immediately reflects the change on the shortcut. Using the Browse button allows you to either select and alternative icon library that you may have downloaded or look at icons that may be embedded in many of the .dll files forming your windows installation. One particularly popular one is ‘moricons.dll’ located in the System32 folder.
Switches and Hot-Keys
In addition to the representation functionality, the ‘Shortcut’ can also carry additional information to the target file called ‘switches’. This allows the user to change the behaviour of the target file. Take the shutdown.exe file in XP. This file as you’d expect actually initiates a system shutdown. However, if you pass specific switches to this file you can modify aspects of the shutdown process such as the time delay before performing the shutdown or aborting a shutdown or restart in progress.
Assigning a Hot-Key to your shortcut is relatively easy to achieve and can add an element of speed and confidentiality too. Consider hiding your shortcut and then allowing the user to execute it by a certain key combination. Right click your shortcut and select properties. Click in the ‘Shortcut Key’ area and hit the key combination you wish to assign to this shortcut. The chosen combination will appear in this area.
Finally if you wish to Hide the shortcut file, switch to the General tab and click the Hidden tick box. Click OK and try out your Hot Key.
Isn’t it time you created that SRP shortcut yet?
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Humble Short-cut
