Is it posssible to open and edit a Windows shortcut as a file instead of opening the target of the shortcut?

[Jim Harris]

In some editors it is possible to open a desktop shortcut as a file and view the shortcut’s content instead of opening the shortcut’s target.

Is this possible in Notepad?

[PeterJones]

@Jim-Harris ,

Not as far as I know. Notepad++ is honoring the “contract” with the OS by following the link.

The underlying format of a .lnk shortcut file is a binary format, not a text file, so it doesn’t make much sense to open it with a text editor.

But if you really want to, you could just change the extension, open it, do your thing to the binary file in a text editor, close it, and change the extension back

[PeterJones]

@Jim-Harris ,

See, for example, this official request and accompanying discussion