Shortcuts + Enviromnent Variables -- how to use (with minimum hand work)

[Cyril N. Alberga]

I have several external hard drives which I use on more than one system.
They do not get assigned to the same drive letters from one time to
the next. I wish to use shortcuts to refer to some of the files on
these drives, and it was suggested that I use environment variables,
e.g. %PictureDrive%:\2006 Marqueses\At Sea\South Seas Party 01.jpg

I have created (by hand) shortcuts to files on the disks, set the
environment variable, and hand-modified the shortcut, replacing the
drive letter by %PictureDrive%.

Is there any way to create such shortcuts without the hand massaging?

Is there any way to have the appropriate environment variable set (and
if need-be, created) when I plug my external hard-drive into Aunt
Tilly's PC when I visit and wish to bore her with some pictures?

Thanks for any suggestions

Cyril N. Alberga

[Ted Zieglar]

By default Windows XP assigns the next available drive letter.
Unfortunately, there is no supported method to change that behavior.

---
Ted Zieglar
"Backup is a computer user's best friend."

[Cyril N. Alberga]

That is true, but isn't what I'm asking about. I don't care what drive
letter is assigned, what I want is a way to automagicly take that drive
letter (what ever it is) and assign it to an environment variable.

That is half of the question. The other half has to to with generating
(or post-modifying) shortcuts to replace the drive letter in the target
filepath with said environment variable (decked out with "%"s).

Cyril