CRX id
flehofiklehmnnolpjcamplcnmhgcbkk
flehofiklehmnnolpjcamplcnmhgcbkk
Description from extension meta
Offers the ability to save tab(s) and bookmarks as Internet shortcut files.
Image from store
Description from store
PLEASE NOTE: If you're experiencing a problem, please DO NOT SUBMIT A REVIEW. Email me for a fast reply or submit a support ticket for a slow reply.
-Description-
Personally, I've always used Internet shortcut files for a variety of reasons. For example:
1. To passively share links to content via shared folders.
2. To supersede the temporary use of pinned tabs and bookmarks.
3. As portable links.
4. To accompany resources (installers with links to the websites, projects with links to assets, etc).
However, I always found them so awkward to create, hence me creating this extension.
-FAQ-
Q: As Chrome manifest v2 is being depreciated in 2024, is this extension being updated to support v3?
A: Yes, after quite a lot of work, I have successfully rewritten Save as Shortcut to support Chrome manifest v3 and its asynchronous service workers.
Q: Why does this extension say that it reads my browsing history?
A: I don't know. It does not. To see the real permissions, check file "%localAppData%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\flehofiklehmnnolpjcamplcnmhgcbkk\<version>_0\manifest.json" → section / key "permissions".
Q: Are you aware of X issue?
A: As of 2024/11/09, I'm aware of an issue with filename overrides but struggling to recreate it.
Q: Can this extension be updated to do X?
A: I'm open to ideas so feel free to contact me.
Q: Can I test upcoming features and fixes?
A: Yes, there is a beta version available here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/save-as-shortcut-beta/kmemfmaclfmhaddkneldhbcmlpoanbmg
Q: Does this extension have any tracking or collect any personal information?
A: Nope. Simple as that. In fact, third parties regularly offer to pay me relatively large sums of money per month to inject their code into my app and I have always refused because I hate it when other developers do that so I don't want to be that person.
Q: Can I donate?
A: Sure. 😊 https://paypal.me/mythofechelon
-Version history-
• 5.69.2235, 2024/10/28 (published to beta first):
- As requested by users, exposed internal logic as new option "Shortcut file maximum characters".
• 5.68.2220, 2024/09/15 to 2024/09/22 (published to beta first):
- Consolidated popup logging to service worker so all data is in one place which makes it easier to diagnose on-load issues with the popup as closing the popup closes the inspect window.
- Added instructions on enabling developer mode which reveals the option to inspect the service worker in order to get the diagnostic log.
- Implemented usage of chrome.downloads.onDeterminingFilename to resolve conflict with other extensions which was causing the saved file to be named "download".
• 5.67.2213, 2024/05/25 (published to beta first):
- Changed manifest version from 2 to 3 which required the following:
+ As background pages have been removed, replaced with a service worker.
+ As service workers cannot access localStorage, replaced usage with chrome.storage.local and message passing between service worker and popup.
+ As service workers are inherently asynchronous but code needs to be processed synchronously, changed all functions to be async and all function calls to use await.
+ As service workers don't have a page, changed download method from simulating a click on the background page to chrome.downloads.download (hence new permission "downloads").
+ Replaced chrome.contextMenus.create → onclick with chrome.contextMenus.onClicked.addListener.
+ As service workers cannot use chrome.extension.getViews to access the popup page, replaced usage with message passing.
- Upgraded JSZip from v3.2.1 to v3.10.1.
• 4.66.1952, 2024/06/06:
- So that user options / preferences are preserved, added code to frequently migrate the data from localStorage to chrome.storage.local (hence new permission "storage") in preparation for the migration to already-completed Save as Shortcut v5 which uses Chrome manifest v3 which cannot access localStorage.
• 4.65.1944, 2021/07/20 (published to beta first):
- Implemented trimming of file names larger than 225 characters (Windows NTFS maximum of 255 minus spacing for prefixes of 30), as these were breaking extraction of ZIP files.
• 4.64.1939, 2021/06/11:
- Implemented workaround for Google Chrome version ~91.0.4472.77 bug / error "Unchecked runtime.lastError: Tabs cannot be queried right now (user may be dragging a tab)." Refer to https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67806779/im-getting-an-error-tabs-cannot-be-edited-right-now-user-may-be-dragging-a-ta
• 4.64.1936, 2021/05/15:
- Fixed bug where context menu wouldn't be removed. This was due to an old localStorage variable name being referenced in a catchall if statement and, therefore, always being null and matching.
• 4.64, 2021/03/27 to 2021/03/28 (published to beta first):
- Changed option "Diagnostic log and console" from opening background page to including guidance on how to open the background page, as it was opening a secondary one that didn't include the logging data.
- Added copying to clipboard when selecting file name variables.
- Added help tooltips to the more obscure file name variables.
- Improved diagnostic logging details (greater detail, greater readability, consolidated background.js logging to also use function, removed 'background_Log("")' and added newline characters to actual logging line, fixed logging of tab info objects).
- Improved performance by removing calls to background_processData_Generate_Name_Shortcut() from background_Tabs_Single_setDetails_* and adding them to the end of each original function.
- Changed option "Preserve order in bookmarks archive" to default to enabled.
- Changed handling of unnamed bookmarks, appending host in parenthesis to give some indication.
- Added handling of 0 tabs (happens when DevTools window is focused).
- Updated description to include saving of bookmarks as a feature.
- Converted the URL and archive name pattern fields from <input> to <textarea> too and set maximum heights on both.
- Added calculation of bookmarks variable size to selectively display banner warning about ETA.
• 4.63, 2021/03/24 (published to beta first):
- Disabled diagnostic logging by default and added option to enable it.
• 4.62, 2021/03/22 to 2021/03/24 (not published):
- Fully modularised background functions so modes are no longer required.
- Added option to save all favourites / bookmarks as an archive.
- Increased width of popup from 350px to 400px to accommodate width of new buttons.
- Disabled preservation of tab order in archives by default.
• 3.61.1708, 2021/03/20:
- Modified file "popup.html" marking macOS / .WEBLOC option as not recommended.
• 3.61.1707, 2021/03/13 (not published):
- Modified file "popup.html" removing reference to removed file "info.css" to resolve console error "Failed to load resource: net::ERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND".
• 3.61.1706, 2020/10/28 (published to beta first):
- Modified replacing of invalid characters so that quotation marks are replaced with properly opened and closed Unicode versions.
• 3.60, 2020/10/10:
- Fixed initialization of option "Remove prefixed or suffixed site name".
- Modified option "Work around Windows' restricted characters" changing from recommended and enabled by default to disabled by default as it's personal preference and still experimental.
- Modified option "Remove notification indicators" fixing the code to initialize as enabled by default to match the UI.
- Modified option "File name mode" so that it's automatically set to "Custom" if the user previously set a filename suffix.
• 3.59.1694, 2020/10/03 (published to beta only):
- Bolded tooltips that are both default and recommended to make them stand out more.
- Fixed unequal width of name and URL fields.
• 3.59.*, 2020/10/02 (published to beta only):
- Prevented newlines from being entered into the name textarea via Enter / Return.
- Modified options section "File name pattern variables" making it hidden by default with the option to show and hide it (not saved / remembered).
- Modified option "Work around Windows' restricted characters" so that it applied to macOS and Linux shortcut types too and updated tooltip to state this.
- Added option to trigger button "Save All" via Enter / Return when it's focused on.
- Refactored code for minor efficiency / de-duplication improvements.
- Modified option "File name mode" adding missing "Default" tooltip.
• 3.58.*, 2020/09/30 (published to beta only):
- Changed save field "Name" from a text input to an auto-sized textarea so that the entire content can be seen.
- Fixed bug that would cause %host% and %URI% to be all the same and wrong for each shortcut in an archive.
- Modified option "Remove site name" (1) adding support for delimiter "–" (U+2013 EN DASH) used on sites like Dropbox, (2) adding tooltip explaining when it's particularly useful, and (3) renaming to "Remove prefixed or suffixed site name" as it doesn't do so when the title is only the site name.
- Extended outline colouring to save buttons (<a> elements).
• 3.57.*, 2020/09/29 (published to beta only):
- Modified option "Remove suffixed site name" removing recommendation as it's down to personal preference.
- Added option "Remove notification indicators" which is recommended and enabled by default.
- Fixed bug that would cause changing the option "Remove suffixed site name" and "Remove notification indicators" from Enabled to Disabled to have no effect on the current page.
- Modified option "Remove suffixed site name" renaming to "Remove site name" and re-designing the code to dynamically detect and remove the site name wherever it appears in the title.
- Modified options where the first step is clicking on a link prefixing "In the new tab, " to step two.
• 3.56.*, 2020/09/28 (published to beta only):
- Added migration of old append string / filename suffix value.
- Added variable %tabs% (total number) for archive file names.
- Added automatic selecting of entire variable when it's clicked on.
- Added option "Remove suffixed site name".
• 3.55.*, 2020/09/24 to 2020/09/26 (published to beta only):
- Fundamentally rewrote code to fully support customisable names for both the individual shortcut and archive files, including variables in any position.
- Removed option "Single file name suffix" as it's now redundant.
- Added variables %title%, %host%, %URL%, and %URI%.
- Modified option "Shortcut type" renaming to "Shortcut file type".
- Fixed bug where only one quotation mark would be replaced.
- Split options into top group of file-related and bottom group of extension-related.
- Refactored elements IDs, variable names, and function names so that they're more consistent to avoid confusion.
- Modified options adding tick / checkmark tooltips for recommended / default settings.
- Renamed and migrated localStorage names so that they're up to date with the options and less confusing.
- Added promo tiles.
- Removed unnecessary icon files from package.
• 2.54.*, 2020/09/23 (published to beta only):
- Modified option "Filename suffix" renaming to "Single file name suffix" and adding support for date and time variables.
• 2.53.*, 2020/09/23 (not published):
- Added banners for app installation and updates.
- Added console logging of app installation, app updates, and Chrome updates.
• 2.52.*, 2020/09/23 (not published):
- Added <code> elements and styling to make direct extracts stand out better.
- Modified option "Download prompting" renaming to "Download folder".
- Modified options "Download folder" and "Keyboard shortcuts" splitting onto separate lines like the others and with instructions.
- Tweaked some styling.
- Modified option "Preserve tab order by numbering files in ZIP file" renaming to "Preserve tab order in ZIP file" and adding a tooltip explaining how. This makes the UI a bit neater.
- Modified option "Windows" → tooltip to bold red as a warning.
- Modified option "Cross-platform" replacing " ← Recommended" with a tooltip as it's been set by default for a while and hopefully the red question mark next to the option "Windows" will warn people off from it.
- Modified styling of tooltips adding padding to tooltip so that they're easier to trigger and setting to colour to the same as links so users are more likely to know that they're interactive.
- Modified tab opening changing active mode from true to false so that users can continue reading the instructions before choosing to close the extension popup.
- Modified option "Download folder" adding explanation for why things currently work the way that they do.
• 2.51.*, 2020/09/22:
- Adjusted options section for diagnostic log and console to account for the fact that Opera and Edge (Chromium) don't display links to the background page.
- Re-ordered function background_Save_Generate() so that the filename suffix also has its invalid characters processed.
• 2.50.*, 2020/09/21 (published to beta only)
- Added tooltip to Windows shortcut type to advise of problems.
- Renamed options and context menus to "Save Current" and "Save All" for UI consistency.
- Added CSS to prevent <sup> elements from affecting line height, thereby making line spacing inconsistent.
- Added console logging for addition of Chrome event listeners.
- Added section at the bottom of the options on how to access the diagnostic log.
- Increased height of spacer elements by 2px as options were starting to look a bit crowded.
- Added tabbing to the button "Save All".
• 2.49.*, 2020/09/19 (published to beta only)
- Fixed a bug where Unicode spaces and forward slashes were still set for the ZIP file name even when the option "Work around Windows' character restrictions" was disabled.
- Refactored code so that:
+ It is more intuitive which will make future changes easier and less error-prone.
+ Options' localStorage values are initialised and centrally.
+ All console logging is done on the background page and is easier to read.
• 2.48.*, 2020/09/17 (published to beta only)
- Aligned radio buttons to labels.
- Changed ZIP file name from "Google Chrome tabs - <date and time>.zip" to "Chrome tabs (<date and time>).zip" as this extension can be used in other, non-Google Chromium browsers such as Microsoft Edge.
- Changed ZIP file name generation to take the option "Work around Windows' restricted characters" into account.
- Removed long-commented-out section "Info".
- Made margins around main sections and labels more space-efficient, especially when collapsed.
- Added option to specify string to be appended to every non-ZIP file name.
- Replaced the hyphen to the left of "Recommended" with a Unicode left arrow.
- Replaced "Context menu" with "Context (right-click) menu".
- Replaced "Current + All" with "Current & All".
- Removed the wrapping of backslashes in Unicode thin spaces (U+2009) as it looked abnormal, for example in Windows paths. This also happened to fix a bug where if the first character was a backslash then an underscore would be prefixed to the filename for some reason.
- Made the options section scrollable to keep the popup inside the maximum 600px height.
- Changed context menu entry names from "Save as Shortcut -" to "Save as Shortcut:"
- Changed extension hovertext ("browser_action" → "default_title") from "Save tabs as Internet shortcut files." to "Save as Shortcut".
- Added handling for undefined tabs which started occurring since adding "chrome.windows.onFocusChanged" for some reason.
- Added logging of activeInfo and changeInfo to the console for tab and window change events.
For older version history, see file "%localAppData%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\flehofiklehmnnolpjcamplcnmhgcbkk\<version>_0\notes\Versions.txt"
Latest reviews
- (2023-06-17) Prashant: Amazing!
- (2023-01-29) Matthew: Used to work good. Now when I save Chrome Web Pages to a folder, I'll go back in and click on the shortcut only to open on just the regular google homepage. Not the website. Oh well, anything good doesn't last forever.
- (2023-01-27) yotta117: Does whait it says, I would love it if it allowed me to select which ones
- (2022-09-28) Laurent Hivon: Je ne peux plus m'en passer. En deux clics, crée un hyperlien stocké comme un fichier. Grand merci.
- (2022-08-31) Артем Бородин: Не работает сохранение всех закладок в браузере Vivaldi, начиная со 102 движка, все остальное работает нормально.
- (2022-02-20) masvil: This is a great way to locally save links on Windows 11, which doesn't support drag and drop from the address bar anymore. Great job, dev!
- (2022-01-05) 끼니와새참: Good to use! Very Nice!
- (2022-01-05) gbzorro: An outstanding app. I never want to use my Chromebook without it.
- (2021-06-11) Saman Asiaban: nice
- (2021-03-31) mrs h Hotspur: I've used this extension for quite a while, first with Chrome and now with Edge, and I've never had any problems with it. I'm so glad Save as Shortcut is available and still updated for those of us who prefer desktop shortcuts!
- (2021-03-14) sd di: very good ,but has access to history.
- (2020-12-26) michael schumacher: Thanks for this extension, works great! Not sure if it's technically possible but since you said "Q: Can this extension be updated to do X? A: I'm open to ideas so feel free to contact me." I'll give it a try :) Would be great if you could add an option "Save as shortcut" to the context menu when you right-click on the tab. I'd personally prefer this rather than having an extra icon on the extension bar.
- (2020-12-01) Padmasambhava sambhava: Just a wonderful extension. I use it several times a day and I never tire of it. And what a good idea to have added the forbidden characters ("* /: <>? \ |) as Unicode characters. Finally, link names like "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" are possible. Thank you very much and continue your excellent work.
- (2020-10-16) Tamiu: Good!!
- (2020-09-19) Arjun Raj: WOW... saving urls as files in file system in better than any kind of bookmarking or web clipping that all these evernote and onenote fans all rave about... i just wish i had thought about this years ago and i probably didn't think about because html files saved in chrome using the save as menu only saves it as html files that are offline copies of the webpage; but this extension creates html files that load the online webpage. This is exactly what i wanted. Thank you so much sir/ma'am.
- (2020-09-18) Cutíe Crúz: ⌘U That is the shortcut that I have mapped to this indispensable and ingenious extension. Lived just two days without Save as Shortcut and felt the pain of not having this useful tool. Just tested the shortcut this morning and it works again! Thank you for giving the world such an essential tool for Google Chrome users, and thank you for your consiencience and diligent efforts to want to do good by your users. Ben FTW!!
- (2020-08-18) audiobws: I love this extension and have been using it on my Mac for years. I use preview (Quicklook) all the time for quick lookups. However, about 10% of the time the webloc file won't preview and wants to open in Safari instead of Chrome. Repeated attempts at creating a webloc usually does't help, but sometimes I can come back another day and successfully save it as a Chrome webloc (if I haven't already broken down and simply dragged the URL to create a shortcut). I switched to .html for a while, but soon realized I couldn't preview them. Is there anything that can be done about these occasional Safari weblocs?
- (2020-08-06) Boris Baran: This extension is insanely useful, especially under Linux!
- (2020-03-28) Carlton Doorman: Hi, Just excellent Extension. I use it each day and many time. I don't know if I can do that but sorry If I can't. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/savescreenshot/?src=recommended This extension is like your but, I really don't understand how he does that, it's not even necessary to see the scrolling window but his apps copy all (scrolling windows too) Don't know if you can modify your extension to do that. Sorry I have no money to give at this moment. Thanks for your great Extension !!!
- (2020-02-13) Tim Curtin: Absolutely essential. My bookmarks are an absolute mess. I've been using this app to create a kind of dashboard folder on my desktop to sites I go to every day. Great app, hugely helpful
- (2020-01-02) Mike Sparos: Great !!!!!!!. Thanksssssss
- (2019-08-26) Rombout Versluijs: Super sweet! But what happened to shortcut? i could use cmd shift s to quick save using this extension. Somehow stopped last week :(
- (2019-05-13) Khue Dinh: The extension is very good.
- (2019-03-23) Luther G Tate: March 23, 2019 This is the extension I use most often, several times a day, and therefore the best. I like having a copy of the links I visit every day and I visit a lot. If one had to choose one and only one extension it would be this one. Thanks to the programmer of this wonderful extension!
- (2019-02-20) Ray Foss: No cross platform option, seriously. Look at what the WebCuts extension does, it creates an HTML meta redirect file which works everywhere. https://superuser.com/questions/538089/how-to-create-cross-platform-internet-shortcut-files
- (2018-12-30) registrierungs genervter: Great thing. You get all five if you anyhow manage to make the save-as-dialog remember the last save location.
- (2018-12-30) Charles Lee: How can I use it in "bilibili.com" ? It failed.
- (2018-12-14) Антон Шаповалов: Не работает на Yandex browser mobile. А на компьютере можно и без расширения обойтись. Создать ярлык url легко - просто перетяните мышкой адрес сайта из адресной строки в проводник windows.
- (2018-06-19) Uncle Abner: If you enable 'Ask where to save each file before downloading' in Chrome settings, you can choose where to save the shortcut. This also eliminates the harmful file warning.
- (2018-03-20) Thanasak: ใช้งานได้สะดวกดี thanks!
- (2018-03-14) Charles W: Was working great but now it has stopped working.
- (2018-02-13) azog azog: Great and amazing extension ! thank you
- (2017-11-26) Alexander Hjalmarsson: Almost perfect. Would love some customisation like having the default file name being the title of the page minus the actual URL. Also maybe just directly saving without the dialog box. Thanks anyays!
- (2017-05-05) DaveM: good, works, simple
- (2017-03-14) Warmuser: Works perfectly but will be much better if become integrated on the address bar. I hope. Update - The extension does not work on Vivaldi Browser!
- (2017-02-08) Александр Мальков: This extension really helped me out! Very convenient to use. Thanks to the developer! Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 (Debian 8.7 Jessie, Mate 1.8.1), Chromium v.56
- (2016-12-12) metal502: Must have when your browser doesn't support this natively.
- (2016-11-01) Michael: I desperately want an extension to save a shortcut to a web page- this was a disappointment! 3 clicks on the extension and a click on 'this file may harm your computer'... I HATE THIS BABYSITTER POLICY CRAP! LET ME TURN IT OFF!
- (2016-07-16) vasili111: Does what it have to do.
- (2016-04-05) hisham majeed: I would love if it stores the page as a bookmark to , makes it easily searchable in chrome Also can you please add a keyboard shortcut option
- (2016-03-26) Charlie Randall: This App saved me from going to another search engine and I really like Chrome. Chrome, please make this a part of the browser and save future users the misery I went through. If IE can get this right why can't you. Although it does take me two clicks, I love this app and I think it is the best I have tried.
- (2016-03-12) I use an Ubuntu based os. This app does a fine job of saving the .desktop file. Chrome however does a bad job of opening the .desktop file. Chrome and Chromium, from my experience always re-downloads the shortcut, instead of opening the webpage. If this issue were solved I'd rate 5 stars. I realize that this is a greater Chrome based browser issue, and not that of this application.
- (2016-03-06) Diego Marzorati: Excellent. Missing the option to choose where to save the shortcut only for that 4 stars.
- (2016-02-22) Larry Goltry: I use this Invaluable extension umpteen times a day. As a Computer Tech I'm always adding to my collection of tools. So, I create a folder for a program. In the folder I keep the portable or setup executable. A PDF and a Text file that tells me everything about the program. And finally, i like to have a stand alone bookmark to find my way easily back to the program's webpage without having to search for it in my bazillion bookmarks in chrome.
- (2015-12-26) Michael Chen: Good to use!
- (2015-12-10) Sam Lorenz: Awesome!! I hated how I can't just save a page as a .url on Chrome but then I found this. Thank you guys.