Bug with links to virtual stuff

[astrotzky]

Occurs in the latest 7.0 release.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Enable "Internet Explorer" icon on the Desktop (Control Panel -> Display -> Desktop -> Customize Desktop -> Desktop icons group -> Enable the "Internet Explorer" checkbox)
2. Create a link to this icon (by dragging it with the right mouse button and choosing "create shortcut"). Note that in my tests it was impossible to create a shortcut to this item directly on the desktop.
3. Press enter on this shortcut in Total Commander.

What should happen:
- the default action (which is to "Open Home Page") should be executed

What actually happens:
- Total Commander thinks this link points to a folder so it enters this folder "\\Internet Explorer". This "folder" is empty and the parent directory is the Desktop.

I think TC thinks all this virtual items are folders (so the shortcut to them should list their contents), which is obviously not the case with "Internet Explorer"

[ghisler(Author)]

If you go to the Desktop in Total Commander (via the menu), then you will see that "Internet Explorer" is shown as a folder - because Windows reports it as a folder to TC, not as a file! So how should TC know that this "folder" cannot be listed?

[Clo]

2ghisler(Author)

Good morning,

• Here, I've a button in the bar for the command cm_OpenDesktop.

- From that button, I get IE shown as a file (but without any info, though), and double-clicking it starts the IE browser…

- An oddness is that I've set SingleClickStart=6, and it doesn't work there.
- Not a big deal, though.
- In the same list, only “My Documents” is shown as a folder I can open normally,
but no level up with “••” from the drive buttons…
- Just a remark, because IMHO the Desktop is the worst thing to use in handling files, I never do so.

 VG
Claude
Clo

[Lefteous]

2ghisler(Author)

If you go to the Desktop in Total Commander (via the menu), then you will see that "Internet Explorer" is shown as a folder - because Windows reports it as a folder to TC, not as a file! So how should TC know that this "folder" cannot be listed?

There is no <DIR> entry right to the Internet Explorer icon here. It's sorted as a file.

Back to the problem. When executing the shell link file with ShellExecuteEx Internet Explorer is started as astrotzky wrote. What are you doing to execute the shell link file?

[ghisler(Author)]

Apparently Microsoft have changed that - it is definitely a folder here in Windows 2000!

What are you doing to execute the shell link file?

I first ask the OLE object for the target name. If this fails, I just execute it. I tried it on Windows XP here: A double click on "Internet Explorer" on the Desktop does start the Internet Explorer here!

This works fine here when I enable the "Internet Explorer" on the desktop or not - it has no influence.

[StatusQuo]

Apparently Microsoft have changed that - it is definitely a folder here in Windows 2000!

I can confirm this:
in Win2k it appears like a directory (double-click opens the empty folder in TC),
in XP like a file (double-click starts IE).

A created Link to this (Ctrl+Shift+F5) does not work in any of the two cases here
(the target in the *.LNK file will be "\\Desktop\Internet Explorer" - which windows can't find).

[Lefteous]

The item "Internet Explorer" opens Internet Explorer but that's not the point.
The point is that a link to the internet explorer opens an empty folder called \\internet explorer.

[ghisler(Author)]

I see. I went through my code to check what TC does:
1. It loads the link as IShellLink object and resolves the link
2. It tries to get the plain path target -> fails
3. It tries to get the ItemIDList target -> success
4. It gets the IShellFolder for this ItemIDList -> success
5. It calls IShellFolder->EnumObjects -> success

-> TC assumes that it is a folder and shows it as a folder.

Why all of this? TC tries to show link targets inside of its panels if it's a file or a virtual folder. Maybe you have a better idea how to handle this?

Btw, to solve the problem, just make a link to IExplore.exe...

[astrotzky]

to ghisler:

Windows Explorer opens Internet Explorer when double clicking or pressing enter on the link.
This is the expected behaviour and people will get confused otherwise.

I reported this not because it bothers me (indeed I don't even use Internet Explorer, I saw the issue on a friend's computer) but because it might reveal a problem in the way you handle virtual items.
OTOH, I wouldn't be surprised if Windows Explorer is doing something non-standard here.

So it's a bug and should be put in your bug tracking system.
It's up to you to assing it a priority (probably "very low").

As for the workaround my friend already did that

[Lefteous]

2ghisler(Author)

Maybe you have a better idea how to handle this?

Did you try IShellFolder::GetAttributesOf? The SFGAO_FOLDER flag could be used to find out if the link points to a folder.

[ghisler(Author)]

Well, to do this, I would first have to get the parent, then get the attributes of the child. What if the parent is slow or inaccessible? I will note it for a later release, but for TC 7.01 it's just too risky.

[Lefteous]

2ghisler(Author)
No hurry it's not an urgent issue.

In this sample SHGetFileInfo is used to get the SFGAO_FOLDER attribute. According to the MSDN SHGetFileInfo calls IShellFolder::GetAttributesOf internally. It may be easier as it works with an absolute item id list.

Code: Select all

LPITEMIDLIST ppidl;
// m_pLink is a pointer of type IShellLink.
m_pLink->GetIDList (&ppidl);
SHFILEINFO fi;
ZeroMemory (&fi, sizeof (SHFILEINFO));
fi.dwAttributes = SFGAO_FOLDER;
SHGetFileInfo ((LPCTSTR)ppidl, 0, &fi, sizeof (SHFILEINFO), SHGFI_ATTR_SPECIFIED | SHGFI_ATTRIBUTES | SHGFI_PIDL);

fi.dwAttribute now contains the requested attribute (SFGAO_FOLDER) if the link points to a folder. I have also tried this with other lnk files which actually point to a virtual folder or physical directory and it seems to work fine.


Another hint:
You wrote that you are calling IShellLink::GetPath to get a physical path and if it fails request the item id list. To find out if the link contains a certain information you can also call IShellLinkDataList::GetFlags. I'm using this operation in my Shortcut content plug-in.

[ghisler(Author)]

This should be fixed in TC 7.02, please test!

[Flint]

Confirm bug in 7.01 and fix in 7.02.

[petermad]

Confirmed fixed in TC 7.02

TC now opens Internet Explorer when clicking a .lnk file pointing to the Internet Explorer icon on the desktop.