What is a shortcut?

A shortcut, usually represented by an icon, is a small file that points to a program, folder, document, or Internet location. Clicking on a shortcut icon takes you directly to the object to which the shortcut points. Shortcut icons contain a small arrow in their lower left corner. Shortcuts are merely pointers—deleting a shortcut will not delete the item to which the shortcut points.

Why are shortcuts used?

Shortcuts are particularly useful because you can put them on your desktop or in the Start menu without having to make a copy of the actual file itself. This saves space by allowing you to keep a single copy of a large program file, while placing one or more SC to the file wherever they are convenient.

Types of shortcuts

Advertised Shortcuts

Advertised shortcuts make calls to a feature in the installation. This enables self-repair functionality in an installation. At run time, if the user advertises the product or the feature containing the shortcut, the shortcut is created but the component’s files are not installed until the user launches the shortcut. The first time the shortcut is launched, the Windows Installer service installs the component’s files and other data and then the shortcut launches the target file. Every time the shortcut is used from then on, it behaves like a normal shortcut. In order to create an advertised shortcut, the shortcut’s component must have a key file which is the target of the shortcut. Sometimes you might want to work with only certain features for a certain period of time and use the rest of the features after some time. In that case you advertise the shortcu of the feature you want to use later. This in turn saves physical memory on your system.

Non-advertised shortcuts

Non-advertised shortcuts do not support self- repair and they function as normal application shortcuts.