Script needed that extracts link targets to a text file

Hi experts.

Preparing a win8.1->win10 migration, I noticed that Microsoft does not migrate the pinned win8.1 start menu tiles to the new start menu - what a shame. And while in win8.1 we could even use GPOs to pin certain installed applications, this feature is deprecated in win10.
I'd like to assist my users in migrating those so I have been looking for a scripted solution.

I found this so far which works: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Script-to-pin-items-to-51be533c
What I need for completion is a script that we can run against a directory full of link files (.lnk) and that will write the link targets to a text file which can be used by this powershell cmdlet afterwards.

I already found something but I am struggling to get it to work with links that include spaces, so I am looking for help here.
This is it: target.bat from http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php?topic=80659.0

I hope to be able to run target.bat somefolderFulloflinks and get a text file like
"c:\somepath\some.exe"
"c:\anotherpath with spaces\another.exe"
...

PowershellVB ScriptWindows Batch

Last Comment

McKnife

8/22/2022 - Mon

oBdA

8/31/2015

Since your "Pin" script is Powershell, here's a Powershell script you can use as function or stand-alone script.
It'll return a custom object that you can then pipe to Select-Object and/or Export-Csv as you need.
It accepts pipeline input, so you can just pass it the results of a Get-ChildItem. Advertiseed shortcuts are supported.
Example:

Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu" -Recurse -Filter *.lnk | % {.\Get-Shortcut.ps1 -Path $_.FullName} | Export-Csv -Path C:\Temp\Shortcuts.csv -NoTypeInformation

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Param(
	[Parameter(Mandatory=$True, ValueFromPipeline=$True, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$True, Position=0)][ValidateNotNull()]
	[string[]]$Path
)
Begin {
	$Shell = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell
	$Installer = New-Object -ComObject WindowsInstaller.Installer
}
Process {
	$Path | ForEach-Object {
		If (Test-Path -Path $_ -PathType Leaf) {
			$Shortcut = $Shell.CreateShortcut($_) | Select-Object -Property `
				Name,
				*,
				@{Name="IsAdvertised"; Expression={$False}},
				AdvertisedTargetPath,
				@{Name="TargetExists"; Expression={$False}},
				Error
			$Shortcut.Name = [IO.Path]::GetFileName($_)
			If ([string]::IsNullOrEmpty($Shortcut.TargetPath)) {
				$Shortcut.Error = "Not a valid shortcut."
			} ElseIf ($Shortcut.TargetPath.ToUpper().StartsWith("${ENV:Systemroot}\Installer\".ToUpper())) {
				$Shortcut.IsAdvertised = $True
				Try {
					$ShortcutTarget = $Installer.GetType().InvokeMember("ShortcutTarget", "GetProperty", $Null, $Installer, $_)
					$StringData = 1, 3 | % {$ShortcutTarget.GetType().InvokeMember("StringData", "GetProperty", $Null, $ShortcutTarget, $_)}
					$Shortcut.AdvertisedTargetPath = $Installer.GetType().InvokeMember("ComponentPath", "GetProperty", $Null, $Installer, $StringData)
				} Catch {
					$Shortcut.Error = "Advertised product not installed."
				}
			}
			$Shortcut.TargetExists = ![string]::IsNullOrEmpty($Shortcut.TargetPath) -And ((Get-Item -Path $Shortcut.TargetPath -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -ne $Null)
			$Shortcut | Write-Output
		} Else {
			"Shortcut '$_' not found!" | Write-Error
		}
	}
}
End {
}

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McKnife

8/31/2015

ASKER

Hi ObdA.

That looks good.
So I modified it a little and started

Get-ChildItem -Path "$env:APPDATA\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\programs" -Filter *.lnk | % {D:\Documents\Get-Shortcut.ps1 -Path $_.FullName} | Export-Csv -Path C:\Temp\Shortcuts.csv -NoTypeInformation

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so that it will look only in %appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\programs. It works but the output is rather large. I am not able to modify it so that it only includes targetpath. Could you help again?

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oBdA

8/31/2015

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McKnife

8/31/2015

ASKER

Wonderful, thanks. Would have taken me a some time to figure this out.
You should write an article to make it usable for others that like to migrate their start menu tiles to win10.

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