*.lnk files in relation to 'secure vaults' ie protected flash drives

[ian graham]

This enquiry is not a single, simple question. There may be no solution to the headline issue, but the practical implications of that are such that someone has maybe worked out a work-around.
I am secretary to a small local charity. We organise our working records, including some confidential material, in a tabbed application, which means volunteers can do everything within a single file running in that application. The main file amounts to a computer-within-a-computer they never need to go outside.
The file is held on a flash drive for security, and on the desktop of the actual computer (on which the application is installed) is a Windows shortcut to the relevant file. So it does not require a great deal of IT skill to operate the system.

Now, with the impact in the UK of GDPR, we have decided we need to password-protect the flash drive. Which we have done, on a Sandisk drive which comes with Sandisk's own exe. system to encrypt and run a password - the whole drive becomes a vault.

However, it now seems to be impossible to set a lnk file. Neither the File menu nor the right hand click on a file within the vault contain that option. And Sandisk say that restriction is part of their system.

I can understand that it would be impossible to run a *.lnk before the vault has been opened with the password.
I am less clear that it is necessarily impossible to do so, once the vault is open. Certainly, it is possible to save a file from within the vault out to the rest of the computer, so to that extent the drive seems to be 'part of the computer' once the vault is open.

There is a further implication. Which is that I would normally expect to also use *.lnk files, operating entirely within the vault, to manage/navigate a 16GB stick. If it is impossible to set any up, that is a major inconvenience.

So, comments and suggestions welcome?
e.g. is it possible to write a *.lnk file, if the system will not auto-create one for the user ?
Is this a limitation specific to Sandisk, or would I find it with any encryption.password utility, or any other branded flash drive?

30/5/18
At the system's request, I have reviewed the above post, and I don't think it's ambiguous. Maybe the issue is intractable, as I speculated at the outset.
The suggestion has been made to me elsewhere that a *.bat file might provide a work-round, but I don't myself have the capability to write one.
I would just comment that the issue does seem to me an instance of a much wider 'tendency' at the moment; which is, that for all the hustle of 'progress' in IT, the level of functionality actually seems to be decreasing. Windows 10 the notorious example. But another eg: in the past few days I have switched to an oldish open-source browser, which Facebook for one immediately and constantly tells me to update - but it is actually faster, on my PC at least, than the two options FB says it would prefer, both of which I have used in the past.

 

[hang-the-9]

Bit confusing what you are working on. What is this "tabbed application" you are using? That encrypted flash drive, you just open it on a normal computer? What files are you opening? The computer within a computer, are you talking about a virtual desktop (VDI)? Or some portable program that runs off the drive like you can setup OpenOffice and some other programs to do.

A .lnk file is just a shortcut, are you saying the shortcuts don't work? Or are they pointing to some place not accessible? Not sure what you mean by "set a lnk file" do you mean save one? Are you trying to create shortcuts to files inside the encrypted drive?

 

[ian graham]

Bit confusing what you are working on. What is this "tabbed application" you are using? That encrypted flash drive, you just open it on a normal computer? What files are you opening? The computer within a computer, are you talking about a virtual desktop (VDI)? Or some portable program that runs off the drive like you can setup OpenOffice and some other programs to do.

A .lnk file is just a shortcut, are you saying the shortcuts don't work? Or are they pointing to some place not accessible? Not sure what you mean by "set a lnk file" do you mean save one? Are you trying to create shortcuts to files inside the encrypted drive?

 

[ian graham]

Thank you for your interest.

The 'tabbed application' is a bit of abandon-ware called Keynote, which I highly recommend, but this is not technically relevant to my enquiry. I was simply trying to give a general context by mentioning it.
It could be (for the sake of argument) any file you have in any application you can run in your current version of Windows. The point is, I want to set a Windows short cut to it.
The flash drive is a brand-new Sandisk, with a proprietary *.exe to give encryption and password protection. Being a flash-drive, the point is it goes on more than one computer, but in terms of my 'shortcut cut question', it is in/on a laptop running Windows Vista.
'Computer within a computer'; again, I was referring to the Keynote desktop, and my reason for wanting to keep things simple by using a shortcut. It is not 'technically relevant' to the headline question.
I'm not saying 'the shortcuts don't work'. I am saying that it seems impossible to create one in the first place, in relation to a file (the *.knt file that holds our various records) which is in the password-protected enclosure created on the flash drive by the encryption/password application (Sandisk*.exe). The two usual ways to create a shortcut are (a) through the File menu (b) on the right-click menu. Inside the enclosure, the 'create a shortcut' option simply doesn't appear in either of these places. Hence I'm wondering/enquiring about the possibility of creating a shortcut file directly ie writing it. (If you drag a shortcut into Notepad, it is a very short file. If you understand the coding {I don't}, writing one shouldn't be difficult.)
By 'set a lnk file', I mean 'create a Windows shortcut and then put it where I want it.'
A shortcut links to, but is always created from, - you start at the file, and tell Windows "I want a shortcut to this".
The main thing I want to do is create a shortcut while will open a file within the protected enclosure, and then put the shortcut on the desktop. I would then expect to invoke it only after I had opened the vault.

The wider question I raised was the more general one of being able to use shortcuts entirely within the vault, to navigate within it. The drive is 16GB, and potentially that's a lot of files on a possibly quite complex directory tree.

I hope I have answered your questions, but I'm happy to 'go again', if anything is still not clear.

Sincerely

Ian G
Wales UK

 

[hang-the-9]

Right-click on the computer desktop in a blank area, select New > Shortcut, type in or browse to the location of the file you want on that encrypted USB stick (once it's unlocked that is and has a drive letter assigned). See if that works.

From what I can make out from the post, you are trying to make a shortcut to a file on that encrypted drive on the computer. If you can do that, you should be able to make the same shortcuts to any of the files, then copy them to the drive. As long as the drive letter is the same, it should work.

 

[ian graham]

Thank you for your suggestion. Up to now, when trying to create the shortcut, I have focussed on the file inside the 'vault'. I can see what you're suggesting, in starting from the desktop.
The laptop is in the charity premises, and I'm going away from home for three nights early today. I will try this when I get back, and report back then.
Many thanks

Ian G.

 

[ian graham]

I have now had the opportunity to get back on the laptop to which my enquiries/explorations principally relate, and am updating this thread with what I have done and found.
(1) The right click on Desktop etc route to create a shortcut works, but with significant limitations:
(2) (a) first, the 'browse' process confirms that the Sandisk proprietary process creates a vault on the flash drive ie the whole drive is not the enclosure nor within the enclosure (b) within the vault, the files there located are always encrypted. They exist as *.dat files with long complicated names rather like those Windows gives the *dbx files for emails. So while it is possible to identify what is what, it is not a simple 'look and read'.
(3) My understanding is that if you open the vault, and then open one of these files, they are opened in windows in the normal way, with the important exception that they are in effect 'read only'. If you use a native auto-save, or manually just 'save', no save occurs. It is necessary to 'save as' to a location outside the vault (either on the computer somewhere, or on the flash drive but outside the vault), which then requires you to move or copy that file back to the vault at 'close of play' and (for maximum security) then delete the interim file.
(4) Back to the short cut issue specifically; Ok, so there is the new short cut on the desktop - but it doesn't really work. If you invoke it 'as is', it brings up the classic 'Windows doesn't know how to open this file' error sequence. I went through that, and identified the Sandisk *.exe. But then calling on the shortcut did nothing at all - a quick flash of the egg-timer, and then nothing. Curious, because if I go to the shortcut>properties>locate file route, Windows does indeed find the file perfectly well.
So I think I've come to a dead end on this one. It does seem that using an encrypted vault makes it impossible to set up access for users of limited IT skills, to the extent it was possible before. The process will require higher-skill management at opening and closing.

Thanks for your attention.
Ian Graham