VS 2008 Setup Project, shortcut problem

T

Ty

Hi all

for our application we have a standard Visual Studio 2008 Setup
Project. We noticed an annoyance:

Administrator copies setup-files to his desktop and then installs the
application for all users. the setup creates a icon on the desktop.
now if the "normal" user clicks the icon the first time on his
desktop, for some reason it seems to start setup.msi to check some
things. and since the msi is still residing on the administrators
desktop, of course the the normal user cannot start it, resulting in a
error.

workarround is to create the icon by hand or the admin installs from
another folder then his own.

i've unchecked "check for prerequisites" in the setup, doesn't help.
any shortcut created in
the setup project seems to launch the msi the first time it's clicked.

any idea how to avoid this launch of the msi?

is there a more appropriate newsgroup to ask this? (i didn't get an
answer when i asked it last time)

thank you!
 
C

Cor Ligthert[MVP]

Ty,

Can you explain a little bit how you did it.

Normally you simple use the Setup Wizard, takes the resulted shortcut to the
screen and add in that the icon.

Cor
 
F

Family Tree Mike

Ty said:
Hi all

for our application we have a standard Visual Studio 2008 Setup
Project. We noticed an annoyance:

Administrator copies setup-files to his desktop and then installs the
application for all users. the setup creates a icon on the desktop.
now if the "normal" user clicks the icon the first time on his
desktop, for some reason it seems to start setup.msi to check some
things. and since the msi is still residing on the administrators
desktop, of course the the normal user cannot start it, resulting in a
error.

workarround is to create the icon by hand or the admin installs from
another folder then his own.

i've unchecked "check for prerequisites" in the setup, doesn't help.
any shortcut created in
the setup project seems to launch the msi the first time it's clicked.

any idea how to avoid this launch of the msi?

is there a more appropriate newsgroup to ask this? (i didn't get an
answer when i asked it last time)

thank you!


Well, you previously posted this same text. You should have added that you
then added the following:
Have you looked at the differences between the shortcut created manually
(after the install), versus what the installer creates? I believe you are
saying the manually created shortcut launches without issue.

Probably a better group to ask this is "microsoft.public.dotnet.general",
but many posts there seem to be from users who have general hardware
questions...


yes i checked that. there's a difference:

Link created from setup: "Target" contains name of application, all
greyed out.
Link created manually: "Target" contains the actual path to the exe.
not greyed out.

no matter what file i link in the setup, the target contains only the
application name. but it starts the correct file. so there's something
going on behind the scene...



So, I think the way you create the shortcut in your setup is not correct.
Can you explain what you did in the setup project to create the shortcut?
It sounds like you are not following the recommended procedure.
 
T

Ty

yes i checked that. there's a difference:

Link created from setup: "Target" contains name of application, all
greyed out.
Link created manually: "Target" contains the actual path to the exe.
not greyed out.

 no matter what file i link in the setup, the target contains only the
application name. but it starts the correct file. so there's something
going on behind the scene...

So, I think the way you create the shortcut in your setup is not correct.
Can you explain what you did in the setup project to create the shortcut?
It sounds like you are not following the recommended procedure.

Hi Mike

sorry about the missing info.

In the setup i go to the FileSystem, choose "Primary output from...",
then RightClick and then "Create Shortcut to Primary Output...". then
i place the created shortcut in "User's Desktop" and "User's Programs
Menu".

that's about it...

Thank you!
 
F

Family Tree Mike

Ty said:
Hi Mike

sorry about the missing info.

In the setup i go to the FileSystem, choose "Primary output from...",
then RightClick and then "Create Shortcut to Primary Output...". then
i place the created shortcut in "User's Desktop" and "User's Programs
Menu".

that's about it...

Thank you!

The only thing that pops into my mind, as I only have express where I am
now, is this. I recall once "copying" the created icon to the desktop in
the file system and seeing what you are observing. Look at the example link
here. The steps are slightly different.

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/Win_App_Setup_Project.aspx
 
T

Ty

The only thing that pops into my mind, as I only have express where I am
now, is this.  I recall once "copying" the created icon to the desktop in
the file system and seeing what you are observing.  Look at the examplelink
here.  The steps are slightly different.

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/Win_App_Setup_Project.aspx

Hi Mike

This looks like VS2005. in 2008 there's no "Create New Shortcut".

i'll have to investigate further. it's really strange that the
"Target" is greyed out in these setup-created shortcuts.
 
T

Ty

Hi Mike

This looks like VS2005. in 2008 there's no "Create New Shortcut".

i'll have to investigate further. it's really strange that the
"Target" is greyed out in these setup-created shortcuts.

sorry, i misslooked. there's a "Create New Shortcut" in VS 2008. i
tried it using this:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Languages/.NET/Visual_Studio_.NET_2005/Q_23833212.html

but the effect is exaxtly the same. Target is greyed out and it's
checking something if a new user clicks the icon...
 

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