LnkSerialization

Tool to serialize/deserialize shortcut links as a human-friendly editable/readable json collection.

Description

In my daily chores, I use the Win+R shortcuts a lot to access network folders, desktop, download, misc folders; or different applications. I have a path env to a shortcuts folder, so Win+R can call the links from there.

My setup is the following:

1. Have a folder (C:\shortcuts\) with your links. (I have provided a example.json with some links. A deserialization is required. See below.)
2. Add that folder to your Windows Path Environment Variables. (possible via setx path "%PATH%;C:\shortcuts").
3. Usage: In that (C:\shortcuts\) folder, add a dl.lnk shortcut to my Downloads folder.
4. Whenever I need to access the Downloads folder, I do a Win+R and run dl.
5. Voilà!

Now, sometimes I need to change my shortcuts in batches:

• A network path changes > multiple shortcuts are affected
• I want to programatically add new folders (e.g.: new project folders)
• I want to share my changes with other users: It is true that I can correctly create the shortcut with shortcuts as %userProfile%, but creating the shortcuts this way, takes longer.
• Update the binaries path of a tool that changes its folder. e.g.: \App_v1\bin.exe to \App_v2\bin.exe.
• Other reasons to update many shortcuts in batches (?)

With this tool, the shortcuts can be serialized to a .json file.
This file can be easily edited and shared.
You can call your favorite tools and folders without navigating on your file explorer.

Tool usage

To serialize a folder with shortcuts to a .json file:

LnkSerialization serialize -i "Path\To\Shortcuts" -o "Path\To\backup.json"

To deserialize a .json file to a folder with shortcuts:

LnkSerialization deserialize -i "Path\To\backup.json" -o "Path\To\Shortcuts"

The repo comes with an example.json file with some starting links.

Dependencies

This tool uses:

• CommandLineParser (https://github.com/commandlineparser/commandline)
• securifybv.ShellLink (https://github.com/securifybv/ShellLink)
• Wororo.Utilities (https://github.com/gabrieldelaparra/Wororo.Utilities)

Notes

Please note that the tool is not throughly tested. Please create an issue if you find any bugs.