Wix create non advertised shortcut for all users / per machine

Question

In WIX, how do you create a non advertised shortcut in the allusers profile? So far I've only been able to accomplish this with advertised shortcuts. I prefer non-advertised shortcuts because you can go to the shortcut's properties and use "find target".

In the tutorials I've seen use a registry value for the keypath of a shortcut. The problem is they use HKCU as the root. When HKCU is used, and another user uninstalls the program (since it's installed for all users) the registry key is left behind. When I use HKMU as the root I get an ICE57 error, but the key is removed when another user uninstalls the program. I seem to be pushed towards using HKCU though HKMU seems to behave correctly (per-user vs all-users).

When I try to create the non advertised shortcut I get various ICE error such as ICE38, ICE43, or ICE 57. Most articles I've seen recommend "just ignore the ice errors". There must be a way to create the non advertised shortcuts, without creating ICE errors.

Please post sample code for a working example.

Answer 1

The registry key is only there to serve as the keypath for the component, because shortcuts cannot be used as the keypath resource themselves.

If the registry key is giving you trouble, you could also use an empty dummy file as the key path resource. Just replace the RegistryValue element in your component by

<File Source="DummyKeyPathFileForShortcutX.txt" KeyPath="yes" />

This dummy file could be installed anywhere you like.

Answer 2

Take a look at From MSI to WiX, Part 10 - Shortcuts by Alex Shevchuk.

Or Rob Menching's blog post How to create an uninstall shortcut (and pass all the ICE validation).

Basically ICE57 is rather annoying... but here's the (seems to be working) code I'm using for Desktop shortcuts :)

<Component Id="DesktopShortcut" Directory="APPLICATIONFOLDER" Guid="*">
    <RegistryValue Id="RegShortcutDesktop" Root="HKCU" Key="SOFTWARE\My App\1.0\settings" Name="DesktopSC" Value="1" Type="integer" KeyPath="yes" />
    <Shortcut Id="desktopSc" Target="[APPLICATIONFOLDER]MyApp.exe" Directory="DesktopFolder" Name="My Applications" Icon="myapp.ico" IconIndex="0" WorkingDirectory="APPLICATIONFOLDER" Advertise="no"/>
    <RemoveFolder Id="RemoveShortcutFolder" On="uninstall" />
    <Condition>DT_SHORTCUT=1</Condition>
</Component>

Answer 3

Can anyone tell me how to do the opposite of this? I'm using the following Wix code to create a Desktop Shortcut to the ProgramData folder in Microsoft Vista.

<!-- Desktop Shortcut --> 
  <Directory Id="DesktopFolder" Name="Desktop"/> 
  <Directory Id="CommonAppDataFolder" Name="ProgramDataFolder"/> 
  <Component Id="MTDesktopShortcut" Guid="{8436995c-2e76-4030-b92d-c6b4bc243c43}"> 
    <Shortcut Id="MTShortcut" 
              Directory="DesktopFolder" 
              WorkingDirectory="APPLICATIONFOLDER" 
              Target="[CommonAppDataFolder]" 
              Name="MT" 
              Show="normal"/> 
    <RegistryValue Action="write" 
                   Key="SOFTWARE/MT/BS" 
                   Root="HKCU" 
                   Type="string" 
                   KeyPath="yes" 
                   Value="ApplicationFolderName"/> 
  </Component> 

It works fine and creates the shortcut fine. However there is one problem since it creates the shortcut on AllUsers Desktop while I want it to be created on the Current User's desktop. What change should I do?

Also note that I have a property as follows in my installer:

<Property Id="ALLUSERS" Value="1"/> 

This means the installers is set so that it installs on all users I guess. I am not at liberty to change this - I only need to create a DesktopShortcut on current user while the setup installs on all users.

Answer 4

Sorry if it's bad etiquette to answer my own question.

Recently I stumbled upon the information on DISABLEADVTSHORTCUTS property. I created an install with advertised shortcuts and set the DISABLEADVTSHORTCUTS property to 1 which produced non-advertised shortcuts. This bypasses ICE43 errors because an advertised shortcut can use a file as a keypath. Because DISABLEADVTSHORTCUTS has been set Windows Installer will replace these advertised shortcuts with regular shortcuts.

I set the Package Element's InstallScope attribute to "perMachine". This sets the ALLUSERS property to 1. The values of ProgramMenuFolder and DesktopFolder will then resolve to the All Users profile.

For folders created under ProgramMenuFolder there is a RemoveFolder and RegistryValue element. The examples I've seen (ex1, ex2) use HKCU as the root for the RegistryValue. I changed this root to HKMU which resolves to HKCU or HKLM depending on the value of ALLUSERS.

In short, with DISABLEADVTSHORTCUTS set to 1 your advertised shortcuts will not produce ICE errors, but will be converted to non-advertised shortcuts when installed. A RegistryValue with root HKMU is fine for a KeyPath as long as it's not keypath for a non-advertised shortcut.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- This example is based on SampleFirst by Gábor DEÁK JAHN, Tramontána:
        http://www.tramontana.co.hu/wix/lesson1.php#1.3
    Original SampleFirst:
        http://www.tramontana.co.hu/wix/download.php?file=samples/samplefirst.zip&amp;type=application/zip -->
<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi"&gt;
    <Product Name="Foobar 1.0" Id="YOURGUID-21F1-4026-ABD2-7CC7F8CE4D18" UpgradeCode="YOURGUID-AFA4-46C6-94AA-EEE3D104F903" Language="1033" Codepage="1252" Version="1.0.0" Manufacturer="Acme Ltd.">
        <Package Id="*" Keywords="Installer" Description="Acme's Foobar 1.0 Installer" Comments="Foobar is a registered trademark of Acme Ltd." Manufacturer="Acme Ltd." InstallerVersion="100" Languages="1033" Compressed="yes" SummaryCodepage="1252" InstallScope="perMachine" />
        <Media Id="1" Cabinet="Sample.cab" EmbedCab="yes" DiskPrompt="CD-ROM #1" />
        <Property Id="DiskPrompt" Value="Acme's Foobar 1.0 Installation [1]" />
        <Property Id="DISABLEADVTSHORTCUTS" Value="1" />
        <Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
            <Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder" Name="PFiles">
                <Directory Id="Acme" Name="Acme">
                    <Directory Id="INSTALLDIR" Name="Foobar 1.0">
                        <Component Id="MainExecutable" Guid="YOURGUID-3E4F-47A2-86F1-F3162E9C4798">
                            <File Id="FoobarEXE" Name="FoobarAppl10.exe" DiskId="1" Source="FoobarAppl10.exe" KeyPath="yes">
                                <Shortcut Id="startmenuFoobar10" Directory="ProgramMenuDir" Name="Foobar 1.0" WorkingDirectory="INSTALLDIR" Icon="Foobar10.exe" IconIndex="0" Advertise="yes" />
                                <Shortcut Id="desktopFoobar10" Directory="DesktopFolder" Name="Foobar 1.0" WorkingDirectory="INSTALLDIR" Icon="Foobar10.exe" IconIndex="0" Advertise="yes" />
                            </File>
                        </Component>
                        <Component Id="HelperLibrary" Guid="YOURGUID-C7DA-4C02-A2F0-A6E089FC0CF3">
                            <File Id="HelperDLL" Name="Helper.dll" DiskId="1" Source="Helper.dll" KeyPath="yes" />
                        </Component>
                        <Component Id="Manual" Guid="YOURGUID-FF92-4BF4-A322-819A3B2265A0">
                            <File Id="Manual" Name="Manual.pdf" DiskId="1" Source="Manual.pdf" KeyPath="yes">
                                <Shortcut Id="startmenuManual" Directory="ProgramMenuDir" Name="Instruction Manual" Advertise="yes" />
                            </File>
                        </Component>
                    </Directory>
                </Directory>
            </Directory>
            <Directory Id="ProgramMenuFolder" Name="Programs">
                <Directory Id="ProgramMenuDir" Name="Foobar 1.0">
                    <Component Id="ProgramMenuDir" Guid="YOURGUID-D1C2-4D76-BA46-C6FA79862E77">
                        <RemoveFolder Id="ProgramMenuDir" On="uninstall" />
                        <RegistryValue Root="HKMU" Key="Software\[Manufacturer]\[ProductName]" Type="string" Value="" KeyPath="yes" />
                    </Component>
                </Directory>
            </Directory>
            <Directory Id="DesktopFolder" Name="Desktop" />
        </Directory>
        <Feature Id="Complete" Level="1">
            <ComponentRef Id="MainExecutable" />
            <ComponentRef Id="HelperLibrary" />
            <ComponentRef Id="Manual" />
            <ComponentRef Id="ProgramMenuDir" />
        </Feature>
        <Icon Id="Foobar10.exe" SourceFile="FoobarAppl10.exe" />
    </Product>
</Wix>