Get the "Target" of an Shortcut file

How can I get the "Target" of an Shortcut file?

i can see it if:

1. i'm right click on the Shortcut file.
2. click on "Properties".
3. under the "Shortcut" title parameter "Target" is listed.

I want to read these parameters using a Matlab command.

I got an answer to my question about how to get the "version" of a file using the commands in the link below, and I think the way should be relatively the same for finding the "target".

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/1885347-get-the-file-version-of-an-exe-file#answer_1137242

Answer 1

[David Goldfisher]

Create a VBS script:

( open a txt file and copy the VBS script into it.

Then rename the file to "GetTargetShortcut.vbs")

' File: GetTargetShortcut.vbs
Set FSO=CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set Ws = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
If Wscript.Arguments.Count > 0 then
   sFullFileName = Wscript.Arguments(0)
   If FSO.FileExists(sFullFileName) Then
        set Lnk = Ws.Createshortcut(sFullFileName)
        WScript.echo "LinkTarget: "& Lnk.TargetPath
   Else
      WScript.Echo "Error: missing file"
   End If
Else
   WScript.Echo "Error: missing input"
End If

Then call it from Matlab:

file = 'C:\Your\pass\Example.lnk';
[status, result] = system(sprintf('cscript -nologo GetTargetShortcut.vbs "%s"', file))

Output:

result = 
    'LinkTarget: C:\Example\target.exe
     '

Parse this using strsplit and strtrim.

Versions = strsplit(result,': ');
if strcmp(Versions{1},'LinkTarget')
    LinkTarget = Versions{2}
else
    LinkTarget = [];
end

Output:

    LinkTarget = 
    'C:\Example\target.exe
     '