# Find shortcut destinations (Windows)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-shortcut-destinations-windows/581422>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 10, 2011, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-shortcut-destinations-windows/581422 "2011-05-10T18:52:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![AHarris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bcef8e/32.png) [@AHarris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHarris)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-shortcut-destinations-windows/581422/1 "2011-05-10T18:52:35Z")

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Hello,

In Windows, if I have a bunch of shortcuts in a folder, is there a way to get a list of the files they are shortcuts to without having to check the properties page of each one?

I’ve tried accessing the directory from Linux, but it just sees them as files.

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**Author:** ![Omphaloskeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bcef8e/32.png) [@Omphaloskeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omphaloskeptic)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-shortcut-destinations-windows/581422/2 "2011-05-10T20:45:18Z")

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There’s a utility available for Cygwin called [readshortcut](http://www.fiveanddime.net/cygwin-man-pages/usr/share/man/man1/readshortcut.1.html) which will do this. You can get the source [here](http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/cygutils.htm) if you want to try compiling it without Cygwin.

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**Author:** ![AHarris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bcef8e/32.png) [@AHarris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHarris)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-shortcut-destinations-windows/581422/3 "2011-05-10T21:09:54Z")

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> [@Omphaloskeptic](#):
>
> There’s a utility available for Cygwin called [readshortcut](http://www.fiveanddime.net/cygwin-man-pages/usr/share/man/man1/readshortcut.1.html) which will do this. You can get the source [here](http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/cygutils.htm) if you want to try compiling it without Cygwin.

Thanks. I was able to do what I needed to do with this utility.