God Windows is crud - Can't even create a shortcut...

[NeilF]

(Vista 64)

So, just trying to create a shortcut to, "D:\Steam\SteamApps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\"

Cannot do it. Every attempt to enter that address (in the target), Windows instead thinks it knows better and changes, when you save/create the shortcut, to:-

"D:\Steam\SteamApps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2.exe"

ridiculous!


EDIT: Only way I can do it, is to drag and drop the folder location into another folder to create a shortcut. Madness that actually typing in "D:\Steam\SteamApps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\" shouldn't work because Windows changes it!

 

[NeilF]

Why not right-mouse-click the directory and send to > desktop Just tested it on a left 4 dead directory here (Vista64 & 7), works a treat...

That's basically what I had to do... (As I mentioned)

The point is though, if I copied the directory path "D:\Steam\SteamApps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\" and created a shortcut manually and typed/pasted in that path. On finishing, Windows decides it knows better than me and changes the target of the shortcut to "D:\Steam\SteamApps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2.exe", which of course is not what I want a shortcut to.

Bizarre!

 

[NeilF]

You can just edit the shortcut through properties after you've made it to point just to the folder.

No you can't... Any attempt to change the properties/target to the folder "D:\Steam\SteamApps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\" will fail. Windows will decide it knows better and change it to the application "D:\Steam\SteamApps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2.exe".

 

[NeilF]

You can right click the game in your steam games list and select create desktop shortcut.

Re-read the OP. I'm creating a shortcut to a folder, not an executable. Windows decides I don't know what I'm doing and changes the target I type in...

 

[NeilF]

Yes... the whole operating system is "crud" because you found an obscure bug. All software has bugs, especially something as complex as an operating system, in this case it is easily reproducible so report it to Microsoft and they'll probably fix it.

In the mean time, go to the folder "D:\Steam\SteamApps\common\left 4 dead 2\" right click the folder "leftfordead2" and click "create shortcut".

Of course the whole OS isn't crud, I was frustrated and annoyed - I'd tried over and over,cutting and pasting, checking double checking, typing and re-typing, trying different combinations, thinking I was making a typo

In the meantime read the OP and you'll see this is what I did...

 

[NeilF]

Have you tried it without the trailing backward slash?

Its probably done like that for a reason! There are more people who want to create a link to a program than a folder. So they automatically fill in the blanks. Like everything, its the poweruser that suffers for the masses.

Yeh, I can sort of understand that, but I was even trying to put the final "\" on the end of the line to help it

ie: The absolutely specific location "D:\Steam\SteamApps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\"

So it was removing things I'd typed and replacing it with other things...

"D:\Steam\SteamApps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\" goes to "D:\Steam\SteamApps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2.exe"

 

[NeilF]

I had the same problem before and it wasnt anything to do with Windows but it was Steam. I solved the problem uninstalling Steam,deleting everything apart from my games from the Steam folder, reinstalled and the shortcut problem was gone.

You're telling me Steam affects the target line for the properties of a shortcut? Nah!

 

[NeilF]

question for OP: do you have "hide extensions for known file types" enabled? I always turn that off, it leads to all sorts of problems if I don't.

No, everything is shown...

 

[NeilF]

It's not just a bug in Vista, you can reproduce it in Windows 7 x86 7 x64:

Create a folder C:\test and put a test.exe file into the C:\test folder, create another folder C:\test\test, and when you type C:\test\test into "target" it'll change to c:\test\test.exe, if you put "C:\test\test." into the target it links to the folder though.

Wow, the "C:\test\test." bit is super odd!

 

[NeilF]

you're doing it wrong... no, wait, you're doing it right

I have 7 64 and I get the same result as OP. to set it up:

"desktop/test/" folder
"desktop/test/test.exe" file
"desktop/test/test/" folder

right-click on desktop, create new shortcut.
navigate to "desktop/test/test/" folder and click OK.
watch as windows makes a shortcut to desktop/test/test.exe instead!

LOL!