From MSI to WiX, Part 10 - Shortcuts

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 10 - Shortcuts

Tonko — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:51:09 GMT

Again Alex you did a great job and a favor to Wix installation developers like myself.

I was looking for a good reference on shortcuts but what I found is mostly incomplete or uses a fake Registry search component (for reasons I did't quite understand.)

The bit on removing the shortcut from roaming profile is very much appreciated.

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 10 - Shortcuts

Rick R — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:54:34 GMT

Good article, but I have a question/comment about localization.

When localizing the name of the shortcut, you change the name of a file (the .lnk file) in a component. According to MSI rules, you must therefore change the name of all other files/registry entries in the same component, including the .exe file.

If this rule isn't followed, you can get orphaned shortcuts if you install your product with Language A, overwrite it with Language B, and then uninstall.

Since advertised shortcuts must be in the same component as the file they advertise, I haven't ever been able to use advertised shortcuts.

Am I missing something, or are advertised shortcuts not practical in Windows XP if my product requires the language overwriting desribed above?

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 10 - Shortcuts

Sachin — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:04:47 GMT

Very informative and good article. In my product I had to create shortcut icons from external icon file and I discovered that the icon id name should end with .exe to work on Vista

If I change this to Id="myIcon.ico", the shortcut icons are not displayed on Vista, but they work on Server 2003 /XP

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 10 - Shortcuts

Alex Shevchuk — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:27:54 GMT

Hi Sachin,

Description of Icon table (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa369210(VS.85).aspx) on MSDN has the following:

"...

Icon files that are associated strictly with file extensions or CLSIDs can have any extension, such as .ico. However, Icon files that are associated with shortcuts must be in the EXE binary format and must be named such that their extension matches the extension of the target. The shortcut will not work if this rule is not followed. For example, if a shortcut is to point to a resource having the key file Red.bar, then the icon file must also have the extension .bar.

..."

So, if you are installing an executable, your icon file must have .exe extension.

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 10 - Shortcuts

Ajay — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:19:53 GMT

How can i pass a property value to the name of the shortcut?

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 10 - Shortcuts

Alex Shevchuk — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 04:23:54 GMT

Ajay,

Sorry for the delay.

You can't pass property's value to the Name/LongName attribute of the Shortcut element. The reason for this is that the type of the Name field in the Shortcut table (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa371847(VS.85).aspx) is Filename. The only datatype which accepts values of other properties/environment variables is Formatted.

Alex

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 10 - Shortcuts

Tony — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 06:15:51 GMT

Hi guys,

For localisation and changes to shortcuts name on upgrade, you can remove orphan shortcut using the following and also if you use variables for your shortcut (e.g Product 5.0, Prodcut 6.0 and so on... where in each product version or upgrade, your version changes.) as pointed in my post http://n2.nabble.com/Variable-Shorcut-Name-and-Upgrading...-td1392525.html#a1401696 :-

It is to remove the files explicitly on install and uninstall~!!!

In addition, I specify the wildcard * so that the product will be removed~!!!

With reference to RemoveFiles Action, you will also need to schedule the following due to Sequence Restrictions:-

The InstallValidate action must be called before calling RemoveFiles. If an InstallFiles action is used, it must appear after RemoveFiles.

Thanks Michael...for you are the only one to reply...haha....

Good luck guys who have similar problems =)

-Tony

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 10 - Shortcuts

Arun — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:09:55 GMT

I am installing a product in per machine mode. my requirement is to provide shortcuts to my applications in Program Menu folder, along with a Uninstall product shortcut for all users.

1 .I having trouble placing the Uninstall shortcut, [which is a target to msisexec with product code argument]. Since its non-advertised target, it wouldn't let me have it a file, but needs a HKCU registry entry as keypath :ICE43.

2. It is my understanding that only Advertised shortcuts are removed during an uninstall.

Even though i remove my shortcuts folder, only the Uninstall link stays back in the folder. This happens only when more than one version of the product is installed.

The article was very informative, thought you could shed some light on my issues.

thanks for the help.

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 10 - Shortcuts

Alex Shevchuk — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 22:29:34 GMT

Arun,

For uninstall shortcut and ICE43 issue read Rob's blog: http://robmensching.com/blog/archive/2007/04/27/How-to-create-an-uninstall-shortcut-and-pass-all-the.aspx

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 10 - Shortcuts

Fatih — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:42:10 GMT

Hi Alex again,

I am trying to do conditional programmenu and desktop shortcuts. I put checkboxes on verifyready dialog. And trying to make my msi create them if they are choosed. I searched for it but couldn't get a useful document. What should I do? Do you have an example for this?

Thanks

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 10 - Shortcuts

sam — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:57:01 GMT

how i can make feature to run-from-source.. meaning.. i am having cd drive where i have msi when i install all the feature except one feaure should run-from-source ,after successful installation the application should run only when the source msi cd is inserted into machine because the feature is run-from-source....and without feature applicaion can run...how can i do this

re: From MSI to WiX, Part 10 - Shortcuts

Alex Shevchuk — Mon, 18 May 2009 18:52:16 GMT

Hi Sam,

You need to set Feature/@InstallDefault to "source". In addition you may want to set Feature/@Display to "hidden", so user won't be able to change installation state to "local". Also, you may want to set Component/@Location to "source".

Alex

msiexec.exe -Embedding - this is the custom action server (indicated by the -Embedding switch)

SamDesilva — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:49:06 GMT

i would like like to know

what guid stand in

msiexec.exe -Embedding <GUID> - this is the custom action server (indicated by the -Embedding switch)

since it is not the product guid and not component guid and it is changing every time when i install could you please help me in this regard