python3.6 create win32 shortcut with unicode

I have this python3.6 code that creates Windows shortcuts:

from win32com.client import Dispatch
path_to_target = r"C:\Program Files\ピチャーム\pycharm64.exe"
path_to_shortcut = r"C:\Program Files\pycharm.lnk"
shell = Dispatch("WScript.Shell")
shortcut = shell.CreateShortCut(path_to_shortcut)             
shortcut.Targetpath = path_to_target  # exception here
shortcut.save()

If path_to_target contains any non ascii characters I get an exception: Property '<unknown>.Targetpath' can not be set.

The code works OK and creates the proper shortcut if path_to_target is only ascii characters.

How can I create shortcuts to targets that have unicode characters?

Is there alternative API to create Windows shortcuts?

Solution

Try pythoncom instead which is Unicode compatible. Also not the target directory for the shortcut must exist before hand.

Tested with python 3.6 64-bit

import os
import pythoncom
from win32com.shell import shell

shortcut_dir = r"C:\test\ピチャーム"
if not os.path.exists(shortcut_dir):
    os.makedirs(shortcut_dir)

path_to_shortcut = shortcut_dir + r"\_test.lnk"
path_to_target = r"C:\test\target.exe"

shortcut = pythoncom.CoCreateInstance(
    shell.CLSID_ShellLink, None, pythoncom.CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, shell.IID_IShellLink)
persist_file = shortcut.QueryInterface (pythoncom.IID_IPersistFile)
shortcut.SetPath(path_to_target)
persist_file.Save (path_to_shortcut, 0)