FILE FORMAT GUIDE
Internet Shortcut (.URL): Meaning & Safe Handling
A URL file is a plain-text Microsoft Internet Shortcut using an INI-like section and key-value structure to point to a remote resource.
Check supported header evidence locally. Identification is not file validation or a malware scan.
Analyze a file locallyQuick facts
- Extension
- .url
- Format
- Internet Shortcut
- Category
- system
- MIME type
- Not reviewed
- Standard / developer
- Microsoft
- Open with
- no reviewed opener
What is URL?
The shortcut is not a saved copy of the destination. Following it can open an external URL under the operating system’s association rules, so inspect the target text before navigating.
- Store a small shortcut to a web page or other remote URL
How to open URL
No named opener is asserted. Inspect only as inert text in a controlled workflow; do not execute scripts or follow shortcut targets.
Technical details
- Signature
- Not reviewed
- Encoding
- Plain text; character encoding not fixed by the reviewed description
- Container
- Not reviewed
- Compression
- Not reviewed
Public specification: no public spec.
Things to check
- The destination can change or be unsafe; inspecting the file does not verify the target.
Sources & review
Fact review: 2026-09-19. Unknown fields are not inferred from the file extension.