Get target of shortcut (.lnk) file with powershell

You have made an error in the property; as wOxxOm suggests, you should be using TargetPath rather than Target:

$sh = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell
$target = $sh.CreateShortcut('<full-path-to-shortcut>').TargetPath

Google and MSDN were indeed helpful here; additionally, piping objects to Get-Member can often be useful and educational. This question also shows how to manipulate shortcuts using PowerShell, and uses the same technique as seen here.

If you want the arguments to the executable as well, those are stored separately:

$arguments = $sh.CreateShortcut('<full-path-to-shortcut>').Arguments

Again, piping objects to Get-Member - in this case, the object returned by WScript.Shell.CreateShortcut() - provides useful information.

It may seem obvious to experts but to us simpletons there seems to be a key lightbulb moment here:

<full-path-to-shortcut> = the Full Name! Doh!

Make sure you use .FullName if you use Get_ChildItem | ForEach-Object, etc. with the Shell .CreateShortcut call if you want the current target of a shortcut. For me:

• .CreateShortcut($_.FullName) returned an appropriate value; whereas
• .CreateShortcut($_) returned 'null'