I just had an interesting issue with a client. Apparently they had renamed each shortcut for my application that is put on the desktop at install. Upon getting their next automatic update the shortcut would no longer work, but would rather prompt for the MSI to reinstall the application.
I suspect that the registered shortcut lost its reference in the registry when the automatic update ran. I suspect that normally the shortcut reference is updated automatically but renaming it adversely affected this behavior. Manually creating a new shortcut does not have the problem because it points directly at the applications .exe.
Have you seen this behavior? Do you have suggestions on how to handle it when telling the client "not to do that" is insufficient?
Thanks,Chris
Hey Chris,
It sounds like you're not using normal shortcuts. Why would the shortcut reference the registry?
Also, is the shortcut a "key path" in your MSI? (See: http://forum.installsite.net/index.php?showtopic=12656 ). Try making your shortcuts just regular old files.
I'll try something different.
The shortcut is created the default way. A Microsoft deployment project has properties. In the properties you fill in information about ones application. You fill things like the name of your product, the manufactorer name, the source for the icon that shows in Add/Remove programs. Along with the Product Name is a Product Code. This is used by Windows Installer to know more details about the application. This product code is used to track parts of the application that get installed using Windows Installer through a deployment project. To create a desktop shortcut one goes to the File System Editor Tab in the deployment project. Goes under the Users Desktop node, right clicks and selects "Create Shortcut on Users Desktop". Then from the File Select dialog you pick the assembly reference by picking the Primary Output of the project you are deploying. Everything else is taken care of by VS. If you aren't familiar with this process the result is the type of desktop icon that shows the working directory but the executable path is grayed out simply showing the registered applications name.
