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      <FormatDescription>The Microsoft Internet Shortcut format (URL file format) is built upon a plain text file and adopts an "INI" or configuration file style 'section + key-pair' format, to provide machine-readable structure to describe a method of accessing a web page or website. The format enables the encapsulation of the information needed to connect to a website in a file-based object, which can be distributed or saved elsewhere on the user's hard-disk, for example, in enabling bookmarking of web-sites as a user's favorites. The Microsoft Internet Shortcut format included features such as hotkey instructions, allowing users to make use of a combination of keys on a keyboard to launch a website. The association of the '*.url' file-format extension with a web-browser application enabled double-clicking of the file object to launch a website.</FormatDescription>
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      <ProvenanceName>Digital Preservation Department / The National Archives</ProvenanceName>
      <ProvenanceSourceDate>06 Apr 2009</ProvenanceSourceDate>
      <ProvenanceDescription>Digital preservation research. Contains URL of network resource. Specific to MS Windows operating environment. Although this kind of file is not useful as a preservation target, it is important to identify it so it can be characterized as ephemeral data.; 04/2024 (v.117): Description and links added as part of PRONOM Research Week 2023. Submitted by Ross Spencer.</ProvenanceDescription>
      <LastUpdatedDate>17 Apr 2024</LastUpdatedDate>
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        <SignatureName>Microsoft Windows URL</SignatureName>
        <SignatureNote>Signature - 5B 49 6E 74 65 72 6E 65 74 53 68 6F 72 74 63 75 74 5D - ASCII - [InternetShortcut] may further be ammended by two bytes 0x0D 0x0A [CR LF / Carriage Return, Line Feed] at the end of the signature if required. Further, the initial 18 byte sequence may suffer regional differences, additional byte sequences may be required to identify these also.</SignatureNote>
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