.DESKLINK File Extension

File that enables Windows users to create shortcuts on the desktop when right-clicking a file or folder and selecting the SendTo → Desktop (create shortcut) option; does not contain any data, but exists as an empty file that notifies Windows to display the menu option.

When selecting the SendTo menu option, Windows searches a specific user folder on the system to get the list of menu items to display. For example, in Windows 7, a DESKLINK file named Desktop (create shortcut).DeskLink is stored for each user in the [user]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo\ directory. This notifies Windows to display a menu option for SendTo → Desktop (create shortcut) for that specific user.

Other examples of SendTo menu option files include .ZFSENDTOTARGET for creating compressed .ZIP folders and .MAPIMAIL for sending a file or folder via email.

NOTE: Windows does not show the ".desklink" extension. DESKLINK files are supported by Windows 95 and later.