powershellargumentsquotesshortcutwsh

creating quoted path for shortcut with arguments in powershell

I have the following powershell code calling WSHShell which will create a shortcut in the start menu for Win7/8 but am unable to figure out how to get powershell to pass the quotes needed around the UNC path prior to the arguments in the target line.

What I want: "\\UNCPATH1\Directory\application.exe" argumentA ArgumentB

What I get: \\UNCPATH1\Directory\application.exe argumentA ArgumentB

Code as presently used:

$WshShell = New-Object -comObject WScript.Shell
$Shortcut = $WshShell.CreateShortcut("$env:ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\supercoolprogram\mrincredible.lnk")
$Shortcut.TargetPath = "\\UNCPATH1\Directory\application.exe"
$Shortcut.Arguments = "argumentA ArgumentB"
$Shortcut.WorkingDirectory = "\\UNCPATH1\Directory"
$Shortcut.Save()

Edit with Code examples... thanks to TheMadTechnician and Speerian who both had working examples. Windows is stripping quoted paths in the target field from shortcuts that do not have a space in the application UNC path. Both code examples work on paths with spaces.

$WshShell = New-Object -comObject WScript.Shell
$Shortcut = $WshShell.CreateShortcut("$env:ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\supercoolprogram\mrincredible.lnk")
$Shortcut.TargetPath = "`"\\UNCPATH1\Directory1\application.exe`""
$Shortcut.Arguments = "argumentA ArgumentB"
$Shortcut.WorkingDirectory = '"\\UNCPATH1\Directory1"'
$Shortcut.Save()

or 

$WshShell = New-Object -comObject WScript.Shell
$Shortcut = $WshShell.CreateShortcut("$env:ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\supercoolprogram\mrincredible.lnk")
$Shortcut.TargetPath = """\\UNCPATH1\Directory 1\application.exe"""
$Shortcut.Arguments = "argumentA ArgumentB"
$Shortcut.WorkingDirectory = "\\UNCPATH1\Directory 1"
$Shortcut.Save()

On the second example note the space in UNC path and the removal of the single quotes from workingdirectory in the shortcut attributes. (windows will automatically add here)

Solution

  • Place your quoted string within other quotes, so "\\UNCPATH1\Directory\application.exe" will become '"\\UNCPATH1\Directory\application.exe"'.

    $WshShell = New-Object -comObject WScript.Shell
$Shortcut = $WshShell.CreateShortcut("$env:ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\supercoolprogram\mrincredible.lnk")
$Shortcut.TargetPath = '"\\UNCPATH1\Directory\application.exe"'
$Shortcut.Arguments = "argumentA ArgumentB"
$Shortcut.WorkingDirectory = '"\\UNCPATH1\Directory"'
$Shortcut.Save()

    Edit: ...and I was wrong. This does work for the WorkingDirectory property but not the TargetPath property. What does work is to triple-quote your string instead. So, that leads us to this:

    $WshShell = New-Object -comObject WScript.Shell
$Shortcut = $WshShell.CreateShortcut("$([environment]::GetFolderPath("Desktop"))\mrincredible.lnk")
$Shortcut.TargetPath = """\\UNCPATH1\Directory 1\application.exe"""
$Shortcut.Arguments = "argumentA ArgumentB"
$Shortcut.WorkingDirectory = '"\\UNCPATH1\Directory"'
$Shortcut.Save()

    Works fine on Windows 8.1 at the very least.