Application Link Pathname Formats

The Application Link utility supports the following pathname formats

• Path names can be relative to the base executable file. For example, RequiredAppLinks=..\SomeDirectory results in C:\MyDir\SomeDirectory when you deploy the base executable file to c:\MyDir\SubDir\ Dependency.exe.
• Path names can be absolute path names. An example is RequiredAppLinks=C:\SomeDirectory
• Path names can use a network share or a UNC path. An example is RequiredAppLinks=\\share\somedir\Dependency.exe.
• Path names can contain system or user environment variables that dynamically expand to a specific location for each user or computer. An example is RequiredAppLinks=%MyEnvironmentVariable%\Package.dat.

  The risk of using environment variables is that a user might change the values before starting the application and create an Application Link dependency other than the one that the administrator set up.

• Path names can contain ThinApp folder macros. An example is RequiredAppLinks=%SystemSystem%\Package.dat.
• Path names can include spaces.
• Path names can specify multiple links or dependencies with a semicolon that separates individual filenames. An example is RequiredAppLinks=Dependency1.exe; Dependency2.exe;.
• Path names can contain asterisk and query wildcard characters (* and ?) in filenames and directory paths. For example, RequiredAppLinks=WildPath*\WildFilename*.dat.

  If a path containing a wildcard character matches more than one directory in the file system, each matching directory name will be returned, to enable additional path or filename matching.

  Wildcards that are used in combination with environment variables can provide powerful customized recursive searching for dependent applications. For example, OptionalAppLinks=%HOMEPATH%\OfficePlugins\*\*.