Windows – How to edit Chrome web (.URL) shortcuts to add ‘Rating’, ‘Description’ and ‘Notes’ in Windows File Explorer

bookmarksfile managementshortcutswindows 8windows-explorer

I add web shortcuts from chrome to Windows (8.1) File Explorer (.URL files) into different folders so that I can access not only the downloaded documents but also the ones I want/need to check online.
But I'd like to edit their properties the same way I do with other files like .docx and .pdf (so that I can display these properties in"details view" and/or search for them). It is pretty convenient and straightforward; the properties for Chrome and Firefox shortcuts are right there just right-clicking on the shortcut, clicking properties \ Details Tab. There you'll see the properties 'Rating', 'Description' and 'Notes' which you "can" edit right there (Internet Explorer doesn't show these editable fields):

Details tab

Almost. Because when you try to apply the changes (pressing 'OK' or 'Apply' buttons), it will ask you (at least me) for Administrative privileges:

File Access Denied

…which I try to apply ('Continue' button) but:

Provide Permissions

Then I go to the specified folder to give this user (highlighted in blue in the pic) more permissions but it already has 'Full control' as you can see below. There's no way (or I can't find it) to add more permissions (like Special permission, the only one which is not ticked under 'Allow', and/so I'm not sure it would actually help.

Already have Full control

Does anyone have any idea of how could we modify these Chrome/Firefox (.URL) shortcut properties so that we can display and/or search for them in Windows File Explorer?

Best Answer

How do I edit Chrome web shortcuts to add 'Rating', 'Description' and 'Notes'?

There is a bug which prevents you making the changes you want in the way you have described.

I've tested the workaround below with a Firefox shortcut. It should work for Chrome shortcuts as well.

Apply Property Error" occurs when attempting to modify either the Ratings, Description or Notes fields of a Favorite shortcut

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem with Microsoft Windows 7 including Microsoft Windows 7 with Service Pack 1.

WORKAROUND

The issue can be alleviated by manually editing the shortcut URL in a text editor such as notepad.exe. Simply copy and paste the desired setting i.e. Description Field, Notes fields and Ratings Field.

DESCRIPTION FIELD
[{5CBF2787-48CF-4208-B90E-EE5E5D420294}]

Prop21=31,<<< Add Description Field Text Here >>>
For the Description and Notes Fields the text will need to be manually edited. The Description field outlined in Indigo in the image above. To add description text, start to the right of the comma after "Prop21-31" (replacing <<< Add Description Field Text Here >>> highlighted in Red in the image above with the desired text).

NOTES FIELD
[{B9B4B3FC-2B51-4A42-B5D8-324146AFCF25}]

Prop5=31,<<< Add  Notes Field Text Here >>>
Likewise, the Notes Field outlined in Green in the image above will also need to be manually edited. To add text to the Notes field, start to the right of the comma after "prop5=31," (replacing <<< Add Notes Field Text Here >>> highlighted in Red in the image above with the desired text).

For Star Ratings, all that is needed is to copy and paste the desired value i.e. 1 star, 2 star, 3 star, 4 star and 5 star

(Note: a 5 star rating was copied in the sample image above).

1 Star:
[{64440492-4C8B-11D1-8B70-080036B11A03}]

Prop9=19,1
2 Star:
[{64440492-4C8B-11D1-8B70-080036B11A03}]

Prop9=19,25
3 Star:
[{64440492-4C8B-11D1-8B70-080036B11A03}]

Prop9=19,50
4 Star:
[{64440492-4C8B-11D1-8B70-080036B11A03}]

Prop9=19,75
5 Star:
[{64440492-4C8B-11D1-8B70-080036B11A03}]

Prop9=19,99

Source "Apply Property Error" occurs when attempting to modify either the Ratings, Description or Notes fields of a Favorite shortcut on Windows 7 with either Internet Explorer 8 or 9

Notes on the workaround

Replace the shortcut file with the edited file:

Start run "notepad"
Drag and drop shortcut onto notepad.
Make changes as required and save file.
Change explorer details view to show appropriate columns

Take care not to delete existing lines but just add the new ones you require.

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Windows – What different types of shortcut are there

There’s no complete list, but what you are looking at is called a “folder-shortcut”, a folder that behaves like a shortcut to another object, and is undocumented (at least by Microsoft).

As you saw, it is a regular folder that contains the files desktop.ini and target.lnk. The .lnk file is a regular shortcut file that must be named target.lnk, and the desktop.ini contains the following:

[.ShellClassInfo]
CLSID2={0AFACED1-E828-11D1-9187-B532F1E9575D}
Flags=2

You can see some information about how it is handled by Explorer in the following registry entry:

HKCR\CLSID\{0AFACED1-E828-11D1-9187-B532F1E9575D}

They essentially act like an alias for a folder, except that they do not automatically take on the layout of the real one. That is, if you activate and size the columns in a folder, then create a folder-shortcut to it, opening the folder via the folder-shortcut will let you see the actual contents of the original folder, but the columns configuration (and other attributes like window position, etc.) will be the defaults, not the customized ones—opening the original folder through regular means (directly, file-shortcut, etc.) will display it with the customizations.

As you might guess by the fact that the class-identifier used to create folder-shortcuts points to shell32.dll, they are only resolved by Explorer and are treated like ordinary directories by the command-interpreter (and PowerShell).

They are not frequently used in practice, but they can be somewhat useful and are almost like an alias which is nice because older versions of Windows (like ME, 2000, and XP) did not support some types of aliases well, if at all. One way that they are created automatically by Explorer is when you drag a folder to the Start Menu. When you drag a folder to another folder, the Quick Launch bar, etc., a regular file-shortcut to the folder is created, but when you drag it to the Start Menu, a folder-shortcut is created which allows it to be like a sub-menu (i.e., expandable).

One thing to note is that while you can use them to make expandable menus, they only behave like this one-level deep. Therefore, making a folder-shortcut to a folder, putting that in another folder, then making a folder-shortcut to that folder and putting it in a menu will not let you make a three-level expandable menu. Instead, what you’ll get is a menu that contains a folder which expands to show another folder that expands to show a shortcut named target.