Using Shell Links

#include "stdafx.h"
#include "windows.h"
#include "winnls.h"
#include "shobjidl.h"
#include "objbase.h"
#include "objidl.h"
#include "shlguid.h"

HRESULT CreateLink(LPCWSTR lpszPathObj, LPCSTR lpszPathLink, LPCWSTR lpszDesc)
{
  HRESULT hres;
  IShellLink* psl;

  hres = CoInitializeEx(NULL, COINIT_APARTMENTTHREADED | COINIT_DISABLE_OLE1DDE);
  // Get a pointer to the IShellLink interface. It is assumed that CoInitialize
  // has already been called.
  hres = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_ShellLink, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, IID_IShellLink, (LPVOID*)&psl);
  if (SUCCEEDED(hres))
  {
    IPersistFile* ppf;

    // Set the path to the shortcut target and add the description.
    psl->SetPath(lpszPathObj);
    psl->SetDescription(lpszDesc);

    // Query IShellLink for the IPersistFile interface, used for saving the
    // shortcut in persistent storage.
    hres = psl->QueryInterface(IID_IPersistFile, (LPVOID*)&ppf);

    if (SUCCEEDED(hres))
    {
      WCHAR wsz[MAX_PATH];

      // Ensure that the string is Unicode.
      MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, 0, lpszPathLink, -1, wsz, MAX_PATH);

      // Add code here to check return value from MultiByteWideChar
      // for success.

      // Save the link by calling IPersistFile::Save.
      hres = ppf->Save(wsz, TRUE);
      ppf->Release();
    }
    psl->Release();
  }
  CoUninitialize();
  return hres;
}

int main(void)
{
  return CreateLink(_T("C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Notepad++\\notepad++.exe"),
                    "c:\\Temp\\notepad_test2", _T("DESC"));
}