How to Create a Shortcut Using PowerShell

A shortcut is a link that can point to any program, file, or folder on the system. Having a shortcut on the desktop or taskbar eliminates the need for users to search through multiple folders on the computer.

In Windows, a shortcut file contains the target path of the original file and has a .lnk extension with an arrow in the bottom left corner of the icon. When you open a shortcut file, it will open the original file.

It takes very small space in the disk. This article will teach you to create a shortcut using PowerShell.

Use ComObject to Create a Shortcut Using PowerShell

You will need a WScript.Shell type of COM object to create a shortcut with PowerShell. The New-Object cmdlet creates a new instance of the .NET Framework or COM object.

You can create a COM object using the ComObject parameter. The following command creates a COM object that represents WScript.Shell and assigns it to a variable $WScriptShell.

$WScriptShell = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell

Now, let’s define the location of a file to create its shortcut. Here, we are creating a shortcut for the Typora application.

$TargetFile = "C:\Program Files\Typora\Typora.exe"

Then define the name and location for your shortcut file.

$ShortcutFile = "C:\Users\rhntm\OneDrive\Desktop\Typora.lnk"

After that, use the CreateShortcut method and assign it to a variable, as shown below.

$Shortcut = $WScriptShell.CreateShortcut($ShortcutFile)

The next step is to add the Target path to the $TargetFile variable.

$Shortcut.TargetPath = $TargetFile

Lastly, invoke the Save() method and save your shortcut.

$Shortcut.Save()

The shortcut is created as Typora.lnk on the specified location.

Get-ChildItem "C:\Users\rhntm\OneDrive\Desktop"

Output:

    Directory: C:\Users\rhntm\OneDrive\Desktop

Mode                 LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                 -------------         ------ ----
-a----         1/30/2022  11:34 AM            970 Typora.lnk

The full script should be like this:

$WScriptShell = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell
$TargetFile = "C:\Program Files\Typora\Typora.exe"
$ShortcutFile = "C:\Users\rhntm\OneDrive\Desktop\Typora.lnk"
$Shortcut = $WScriptShell.CreateShortcut($ShortcutFile)
$Shortcut.TargetPath = $TargetFile
$Shortcut.Save()

You can also use this function in your PowerShell script to create a shortcut.

function createShortcut {
    param ([string]$TargetFile, [string]$ShortcutFile)
    $WScriptShell = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell
    $Shortcut = $WScriptShell.CreateShortcut($ShortcutFile)
    $Shortcut.TargetPath = $TargetFile
    $Shortcut.Save()
}

createShortcut "C:\Program Files\Greenshot\Greenshot.exe" "C:\New\Greenshot.lnk"