how to use API to pin a shortcut to start in windows 8.1 by C/C++?

[Ray.M Lin]

Ive put the shortcut.lnk into c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\

in Win8 or below, it seems work fine:

In win8, OS creates the shortcut in the start screen automatically;

In older OS, it creates the shortcut in the start menu.

However, in win 8.1, it does not appear in the start screen!

User need to right click on the shortcut tile, and then select "pin to start" manually.

My question is: how to do it by API?


Ive tried the solution as follow:

//

BOOL PinToStart( LPCWSTR szFilePath )
{
BOOL bSuccess = FALSE;

// break into file name and path
WCHAR lpszDirectoryName[ MAX_PATH ] = { 0 };
LPCWSTR lpszFileName = :athFindFileName( szFilePath );

wcscpy_s( lpszDirectoryName, szFilePath );
:athRemoveFileSpec( lpszDirectoryName );

// load shell32.dll
HMODULE hShell32 = LoadLibrary( L"SHELL32" );
if( hShell32 != NULL )
{
// get the localized translation of Pin to Start verb
WCHAR szPinToStartLocalized[ MAX_PATH ] = { 0 };
int nPinToStartLocalizedLength = LoadString( (HINSTANCE)hShell32, 51201, szPinToStartLocalized, MAX_PATH );

if( nPinToStartLocalizedLength > 0 )
{
// create the shell object
IShellDispatch *pShellDispatch = NULL;
HRESULT hr = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_Shell, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, IID_IShellDispatch, (void**)&pShellDispatch);
if( SUCCEEDED( hr ) )
{
Folder *pFolder = NULL;
variant_t vaDirectory( lpszDirectoryName );

// get the namespace
if( SUCCEEDED( pShellDispatch->NameSpace( vaDirectory, &pFolder ) ) )
{
FolderItem *pItem = NULL;
bstr_t vaFileName( lpszFileName );

// parse the name
if( SUCCEEDED( pFolder->ParseName( vaFileName, &pItem ) ) )
{
FolderItemVerbs* pVerbs = NULL;

// get the verbs
if( SUCCEEDED( pItem->Verbs(&pVerbs) ) )
{
long nCount = 0;

if( SUCCEEDED ( pVerbs->get_Count( &nCount ) ) )
{
variant_t vaIndex;
vaIndex.vt = VT_I4;

// iterate through verbs
for( vaIndex.lVal = 0; vaIndex.lVal<nCount; vaIndex.lVal++ )
{
FolderItemVerb* pVerb = NULL;

if( SUCCEEDED( pVerbs->Item( vaIndex, &pVerb ) ) )
{
BSTR bstrVerbName = NULL;

// check for Pin to Start verb
if( SUCCEEDED( pVerb->get_Name( &bstrVerbName ) ) )
{
if( 0 == wcscmp( bstrVerbName, szPinToStartLocalized ) )
{
bSuccess = SUCCEEDED( pVerb->DoIt() );
vaIndex.lVal = nCount; // break for
}

::SysFreeString( bstrVerbName );
}
pVerb->Release();
} // if
} // for
}
pVerbs->Release();
}
pItem->Release();
}
pFolder->Release();
}
pShellDispatch->Release();
}
}

::FreeLibrary( hShell32 );
}

return bSuccess;
}
//

However, the list of verbs do not contain "pin to start"; the nearest thing Ive got is "pin to taskbar", which is not what I want.

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