Question:
I would like to create a shortcut on the desktop. How do I do that without copying a file to the windowsdesktop directory?
Answer:
The basic approach is to use CoCreateInstance to obtain an IShellLink object and create the shortcut file through that.
Several steps are needed and I don’t want to duplicate what Microsoft has documented, so allow me to direct you to the SHORTCUT example available in the Microsoft knowledgebase and on MSDN.