what is the command line to delete shortcuts

Sebastian42 · 30 Mar 2024

Dennis - I really appreciate your help and attempt to teach me, but I have to insist that I DID delete those extensions. I agree with you that that conflicts with my statement of success, so I can only deduce that my deletions were illusory - there was some kind of 'preservation' happening 'under the bonnet' - but the entries in the relevant folder DEFINITELY VISIBLY lack extensions - and that is so because I (tried to) MANUALLY delete them. So the effect apparently was to hide them, but the action was DELETION.

Try3 · 30 Mar 2024

.lnk file extensions are hidden by default in File explorer.
And this has nothing to do with the File explorer setting about hiding file extensions.
Some people have referred to .lnk file extensions as being 'SuperHidden'.
You would need to have edited the Registry to have ever seen them in File explorer.

This command removes the extension from an .lnk shortcut and File explorer will then state its Type as File.

Code:

Ren SomeShortcutOrOther.lnk SomeShortcutOrOther

Denis

Sebastian42 · 30 Mar 2024

Another mistake - what I deleted was not '.lnk', but the word 'shortcut' along with the extension before it.

Try3 · 30 Mar 2024

Oh, right.

I often do the same.
A shortcut called
Summary of procedure
is easier to spot & to comprehend than one called
Summary of procedure.pdf - Shortcut.

Denis

Sebastian42 · 30 Mar 2024

We can go into Easter in agreement finally - me grateful, and you frustrated.

Try3 · 30 Mar 2024

No, I'm just happy that you now know what you did.

Denis

Berton · 30 Mar 2024

Sebastian42 said:

Try3
MY MISTAKE to say that the entries and not the extensions are hidden.

However - I did NOT change the 'hide' settings, and I DID delete the extensions.
In Folder Options; View tab 'Show hidden files, folders and drives' is selected - and has been for years.

- - - Updated - - -

Berton - I'm with you 100%, and was also a Windows 3.1 user.

And since you mention DOS - my favourite Word processor is STILL Word Perfect for Dos v5.1+,
but I do use WORD where it has a desirable feature that Word Perfect lacks - that does not happen often.

I've always had WP since 'back then' when I took classes at the college for DOS and WP in '92, [community education]. A week after I retired in '94 got a part-time job in a computer store, turned full-time and building/repairing computers ever since.

mngerhold · 30 Mar 2024

Sebastian42 said:

We can go into Easter in agreement finally - me grateful, and you frustrated.

Wouldn't this have been so much quicker and easier if you had posted a screenshot of a directory listing from a command prompt?

Sebastian42 · 30 Mar 2024

'directory listing from a command prompt?' It MIGHT have been quicker.
I'm not aware of using a command prompt to get a directory listing.

In case you want to bring me up to speed on that, it might solve for me my next hurdle, namely, the command line (batch file code) to copy all desktop shortcuts to a folder of choice.

mngerhold · 31 Mar 2024

Sebastian42 said:

'directory listing from a command prompt?' It MIGHT have been quicker.
I'm not aware of using a command prompt to get a directory listing. In case you want to bring me up to speed on that, it might solve for me my next hurdle, namely, the command line (batch file code) to copy all desktop shortcuts to a folder of choice.

I thought of doing so above, but then thought 'too obvious'. Here is one of mine from a folder with shortcuts (some renamed):

what is the command line to delete shortcuts-dir-command.png

Simply type 'dir' at the prompt.