Format
Microsoft Internet Shortcut
Summary
- Name
- Microsoft Internet Shortcut
- Identifiers
-
- MIME: text/plain
- PUID: x-fmt/454
- Format type
- Text (Structured)
- Disclosure
- Full
- Description
- The Microsoft Internet Shortcut format (URL file format) is built upon a plain text file and adopts an "INI" or configuration file style 'section + key-pair' format, to provide machine-readable structure to describe a method of accessing a web page or website. The format enables the encapsulation of the information needed to connect to a website in a file-based object, which can be distributed or saved elsewhere on the user's hard-disk, for example, in enabling bookmarking of web-sites as a user's favorites. The Microsoft Internet Shortcut format included features such as hotkey instructions, allowing users to make use of a combination of keys on a keyboard to launch a website. The association of the '*.url' file-format extension with a web-browser application enabled double-clicking of the file object to launch a website.
- Format encoding
- Text
- Note
- https://web.archive.org/web/20120906134656/http://www.fmtz.com/formats/url-file-format/article
- File extensions
-
url - Submitted by
- Digital Preservation Department / The National Archives
- Developed by
- Microsoft Corporation
- Supported by
- Microsoft Corporation
Internal signatures
Microsoft Windows URL
- Description
- Signature - 5B 49 6E 74 65 72 6E 65 74 53 68 6F 72 74 63 75 74 5D - ASCII - [InternetShortcut] may further be ammended by two bytes 0x0D 0x0A [CR LF / Carriage Return, Line Feed] at the end of the signature if required. Further, the initial 18 byte sequence may suffer regional differences, additional byte sequences may be required to identify these also.
- Provenance
- Digital preservation research.
Byte sequences
- Min Frag Length
- Absolute from BOF
- Offset
- 0
- Max offset
- 35
- Byte Sequence
5B496E7465726E657453686F72746375745D- Endianness
- Little-endian
Changelog
-
V118
- Release date
- 30 April 2024
-
Updated
Microsoft Internet Shortcut: Description created and documentation links added as part of PRONOM Research Week 2023. Submitted by Ross Spencer.
-
V101
- Release date
- 15 February 2022
-
Updated
Microsoft Internet Shortcut: Broadened the BOF offset from 0 to 0-35. Submitted by The National Library of Australia.