[thelist] Creating a desktop link to a web page

Tue Jun 22 21:06:19 CDT 2004

You could make a download version of the page that is an .hta (html 
application). I have made a few .htas for folks to use in my 
department. They are very handy and easy to do. (But work only on 
Windows.)

This is copied from 
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/hta/overview/htaoverview.asp 
. In the head tag you can include a path to the icon:
<HEAD>
   <TITLE>My Monster Application</TITLE>
   <HTA:APPLICATION ID="oMyApp"
     APPLICATIONNAME="monster"
     BORDER="none"
     CAPTION="no"
     ICON="/graphics/creature.ico"
     SHOWINTASKBAR="no"
     SINGLEINSTANCE="yes"
     SYSMENU="no"
     WINDOWSTATE="maximize">
</HEAD>

When you make a shortcut to the application that icon will be what 
shows on the desktop or wherever.

I created a script in my .htas that will create a shortcut to the 
application. You can choose to place the shortcut on the desktop or in 
a number of other places.

You would have to do some other scripting, of course, to maybe automate 
setting things up after its downloaded, and you'd probably have to make 
it downloaded as a zip file or something with instructions on how to 
use it. Not perfect, and probably not what you were looking for, but it 
would work. Somebody smarter could probably come up with something 
simpler/better.

Diane
P.S. Sorry if everthing I post comes out lame. You have no idea how 
hard it can be to type with a parrot on one hand and a chatty boyfriend 
making snide comments all the time.

On Tuesday, June 22, 2004, at 02:40 PM, thelist-request at lists.evolt.org 
wrote:

> Subject: [thelist] Creating a desktop link to a web page
> Reply-To: Casey Crookston <casey at thecrookstons.com>, 
> "thelist at lists.evolt.org" <thelist at lists.evolt.org>
> http://www.alistapart.com/discuss/dynatext/6/
>
> 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?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Ccrookston
***
Don't be afraid to try something new. An amateur built the ark. 
Professionals built the Titanic. -unknown