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This is a question about the .url file format:

How can I store the webpage title inside a Windows .url file ?

I was unable to find an official documentation of the .url file format anywhere on the Net. I only found an "Unofficial Guide to the URL File Format" according to which the .url file structure is as follows in this sample file:

[InternetShortcut]
URL=http://www.someaddress.com/
WorkingDirectory=C:\WINDOWS\
ShowCommand=7
IconIndex=1
IconFile=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\url.dll
Modified=20F06BA06D07BD014D
HotKey=1601

I am looking for something like

TITLE=This is the webpage title!

or

NAME=This is the webpage title!

Is there any official .ini value to store the webpage title? Honestly, I'd find it pretty weird if this was missing.

In Linux you can do exactly that with name=... in .desktop files (which are the equivalent of .url files in Windows).

With regards to Windows .url files, this webpage claims (rightly or wrongly):

You can optionally include the Title= and Desc= properties

But I could not find any authoritative resource confirming (or contradicting) this claim.

The Microsoft documentation (mirror) says there is a property ID PID_IS_NAME which is the "Name of the Internet shortcut". Does this mean, we can use NAME as follows?

[InternetShortcut]
URL=http://www.someaddress.com
NAME=This is the webpage title!

In case there really isn't an officially designated way to do so, will I possibly break any functionality, if I just add title=... for myself (as a personal hack)? Even if Windows will not detect this information and cannot use it, at least I would have this information stored for my personal reference.

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  • Even if that is possible, where exactly do you want to see that title? When opening the shortcut in a browser, it will typically take the title from the actual html file. I can see some value when importing an url file as a bookmark, but I'm not sure that's what you are after.
    – Berend
    May 31 at 15:41

1 Answer 1

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The .URL file format is not officially documented. Only the URL value in the InternetShortcut section is required, everything else is optional.

A list of the possible values is given in the NSIS article Creating internet shortcuts:

[InternetShortcut]
URL=
HotKey=
IconFile=
IconIndex=
ShowCommand=
Modified=
Roamed=
IDList=
Author=
WhatsNew=
Comment=
Desc=

There is no information about what will happen if a value-name is used that is not known to exist, such as TITLE. It might be better to avoid using invented values, as even if this will work in some Windows versions, there is no guarantee that it will continue on working.

But you could use just as well the Comment value.

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  • good answer. I interpret your answer as saying a specific value for the webpage title does not exist. If you can edit your answer so as to confirm this (because this was essentially my main question), I will mark your answer as "accepted answer". It would be great if you could somehow document that there is no such value, although I admit that by definition it is difficult to prove that something does not exist (negativa non sunt probanda).
    – summerrain
    May 29 at 18:22
  • Is that clearer ?
    – harrymc
    May 29 at 18:25
  • It already WAS clear and perfectly understandable before. I was just looking for an authoritative answer confirming that there is no designated value for the webpage title if you could add such a statement (if possible using a documentable reference, but as I said, I admit it will be hard to find a reference explaining that something does not exist ...)
    – summerrain
    May 29 at 18:34
  • The NSIS article was the best source I found, Microsoft kept it undocumented on purpose, perhaps there were future plans that were never implemented. I counsel using a known value only for caution, not from any knowledge, because one never knows.
    – harrymc
    May 29 at 19:28
  • It's just weird that there is a field for WhatsNew but none for the webpage title? Is it really possible that something so obvious is missing? I just came across another website (added to my question above) that claims title= exists. I cannot find any official resource confirming or contradicting this claim.
    – summerrain
    May 31 at 15:34

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