Creating a shortcut to a programme on a usb drive.

hey folks,

I want to be able to create a shortcut to launch a programme that is stored in a folder on a usb drive and have that shortcut on the actual usb drive itself, not on windows desktop as that way is easy enough to do, just send to desktop.

I use a few different computers and drive letter will change for the usb drive that is why I need the start shortcut on the actual usb drive itself, where the programme is stored.

Would save a lot of time actually searching for the icon that will start the programme in the drive.

Thanks

A shortcut stored on the usb itself will run into problems if (as is likely) ther usb has a different drive letter on each computer. A shortcut has to contain the full path including the drive letter.

An approach that will work regardless of the drive letter is to use a .bat file to start your programme. Create a text file containing the command....

START \folder\sub-folder\program.exe

(obviously, use the correct path and name for your programme) Save this as <any name you like>.bat to the root of the usb. When you run the .bat file (by double-clicking, as you would a shortcut) it will be run starting in the root of the usb . The path to the executable is relative to where the .bat starts, so it will work regardless of what drive letter the usb has at the time.

Brilliant works a treat, thank you so much.
Joe

Hi there

@donegaljoe

even simpler method which works for any program etc.

Open file location or use windows explorer to get to the program you want to run then right mouse click then choose send to -->desktop(create short cut). You get icon as well and once on desktop you can move / copy to bottom task bar (the quick launch taskbar) etc.

I use this method to get back things like Control panel on to the desktop -- Control panel still has loads of uses and other programs.

Remember though before launching the program you need to ensure the device is available to the computer or you'll get a message program not found.

For your USB adding the batch file on to the USB is fine and will work perfectly too.

Cheers
jimbo