When you use the
ShellExecute or
ShellExecuteEx function on version 4.0 of the Shell32.dll file to open a URL, the URL is limited to (MAX_PATH - 1) characters. A URL should be able to be as long as (INTERNET_MAX_URL_LENGTH - 1) (defined in Wininet.h) characters.
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ShellExecute and
ShellExecuteEx copy the file string into an internal buffer. In the original version of Shell32.dll, the buffer's maximum size is MAX_PATH characters. Starting with Shell32.dll version 4.71, this internal buffer is expanded to INTERNET_MAX_URL_LENGTH characters.
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This problem can be overcome by creating a temporary Internet shortcut file that contains the long URL and passing the Internet shortcut file to
ShellExecute or
ShellExecuteEx. After calling
ShellExecute or
ShellExecuteEx, this file can safely be deleted.
Code such as the following can be used to create an Internet shortcut file:
#include <windows.h>
#include <shlobj.h>
#include <intshcut.h>
/**************************************************************************
CreateInternetShortcut()
pszShortcut - Path and file name of the Internet shortcut file. This
must have the URL extension for the shortcut to be used correctly.
pszURL - URL to be stored in the Internet shortcut file.
**************************************************************************/
HRESULT CreateInternetShortcut(LPTSTR pszShortcut, LPTSTR pszURL)
{
IUniformResourceLocator *purl;
HRESULT hr;
hr = CoInitialize(NULL);
if(SUCCEEDED(hr))
{
//Get a pointer to the IShellLink interface.
hr = CoCreateInstance( CLSID_InternetShortcut,
NULL,
CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER,
IID_IUniformResourceLocator,
(LPVOID*)&purl);
if(SUCCEEDED(hr))
{
IPersistFile* ppf;
hr = purl->QueryInterface(IID_IPersistFile, (LPVOID*)&ppf);
if(SUCCEEDED(hr))
{
hr = purl->SetURL(pszURL, 0);
if(SUCCEEDED(hr))
{
WCHAR wszShortcut[MAX_PATH];
#ifdef UNICODE
lstrcpyn(wszShortcut, pszShortcut, MAX_PATH);
#else
MultiByteToWideChar( CP_ACP,
0,
pszShortcut,
-1,
wszShortcut,
MAX_PATH);
#endif
hr = ppf->Save(wszShortcut, FALSE);
}
ppf->Release();
}
purl->Release();
}
CoUninitialize();
}
return hr;
}
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This behavior has been corrected in version 4.71 and later of Shell32.dll.
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