[thelist] Creating a desktop link to a web page

Ken Schaefer ken at adOpenStatic.com
Wed Jun 23 08:22:02 CDT 2004


Hi,

You could create a file, place it on your server, and say "save a link to
this website" on your webpage. User clicks on the link, gets asked what they
want to do, and saves it. Try to tell the user to save this on their desktop
(rather than some random folder on their hard disk)

There is no way that, as a general website, you can force something to be
saved onto someone's desktop.

However, if this was an NT or Active Directory domain, it would be easy (as
you, or your sys admin, would have the necessary privileges to make it
happen). In an NT domain, you would use a logon script to copy something to
the user's hard disk. In an AD domain, there's a heap of things you can do
via GPOs - you can control the desktop, or add something to the favourites,
or just run a startup script to create the file (preferably) in the "All
Users" profile (which means that a normal user wouldn't be able to mess with
the shortcut since they don't have the necessary privileges)

Cheers
Ken

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Casey Crookston" <casey at thecrookstons.com>
Subject: Re: [thelist] Creating a desktop link to a web page


: Thanks Ken.  This would allow ME to create a shortcut on MY desktop, but
: what I want to do is allow WEB SITE VISITORS to create a shortcut on THEIR
: desktop.  Walking through these steps would most certainly not work for
: 99.99% of users.  They need to be able to click a link and have a shortcut
: saved to their desktop.
:
: Thanks!!!
:
:
:
: ----- Original Message -----
: From: "Ken Schaefer" <ken at adOpenStatic.com>
: To: <thelist at lists.evolt.org>
: Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2004 2:19 AM
: Subject: Re: [thelist] Creating a desktop link to a web page
:
:
: > Are you talking about the shortcut files that IE uses in Windows?
: >
: > Please the following into a text file:
: >
: > [DEFAULT]
: > BASEURL=http://www.adopenstatic.com/
: > [InternetShortCut]
: > URL=http://www.adopenstatic.com/
: >
: > and save this file using the name you'd like displayed (eg Ken's
: > AdOpenStatic Site). Change the extension from .txt to .url
: >
: > Viola!
: >
: > A trick I was shown was:
: >
: > Start -> Run -> Cmd
: > Enter "Edit"
: > Now browser to an existing shortcut file (eg one you have in your IE
: > Favourites folder), and open it. You will what's inside.
: >
: > To set the Icon to be used:
: >
: > IconFile=%systemroot%\system32\url.dll
: > IconIndex=0
: >
: > (these are the defaults - change IconIndex to point to whatever file you
: > have with an embedded image resource, and IconIndex to indicate which
icon
: > should be used, if there are multiple icons in the file)
: >
: > Cheers
: > Ken
: >
: >
: >
: > ----- Original Message -----
: > From: "Casey Crookston" <casey at thecrookstons.com>
: > To: <thelist at lists.evolt.org>
: > Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2004 11:59 AM
: > Subject: Re: [thelist] Creating a desktop link to a web page
: >
: >
: > : Okay  - found the link.  Thanks.
: > :
: > : But, this site, www.gsep.com, hired a third party,
: > : www.SeeYouAgainShortcut.com to get the job done for them.  With all
the
: > : brains on this list, someone must know how to do it, yea?
: > :
: > : Thanks!!
: > :
: > :
: > : ----- Original Message -----
: > : From: "Bob Haroche"
: > :
: > :
: > : > Casey Crookston wrote:
: > : > > creates a desktop icon. later, when that
: > : > > icon is double clicked, a browser is opened to her page.
: > : >
: > : > This site does it: http://www.gsep.com
: > :
: > :
: > : My original question:
: > :
: > : We're all familiar with the "click here to add this page to your
: > favorites"
: > : link. I have a client who would like to take this one step further.
: > :
: > : She's developed a web-based tool which has become popular with some of
: her
: > : clients, and would like a link on the web page, which, when clicked,
: > creates
: > : a desktop icon. later, when that icon is double clicked, a browser is
: > opened
: > : to her page.
: > :
: > : How would one go about doing this? I don't have any problem creating
the
: > : icon file (.ico), but I don't know how to code the link to create the
: icon
: > : on the user's desktop. Is this even possible?
: >
: > --
: > * * Please support the community that supports you.  * *
: > http://evolt.org/help_support_evolt/
: >
: > For unsubscribe and other options, including the Tip Harvester
: > and archives of thelist go to: http://lists.evolt.org
: > Workers of the Web, evolt !
: >
:
:
: -- 
: * * Please support the community that supports you.  * *
: http://evolt.org/help_support_evolt/
:
: For unsubscribe and other options, including the Tip Harvester
: and archives of thelist go to: http://lists.evolt.org
: Workers of the Web, evolt !
:



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