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

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&type=application/zip --> <Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi">     <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> 

Answer 2

Although this post is rather old it contains quite useful info and looks still active. I want to point out that in general you do NOT need a dummy registry key for your shortcut! AFAIK this is WiX tutorial thingy and is not MSI or certification requirement. Here is an example with no reg key:

<Fragment Id="Folders">   <Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">     <Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder">       <Directory Id="INSTALLFOLDER" Name="MyApp">       </Directory>     </Directory>     <Directory Id="ProgramMenuFolder">       <Directory Id="MyAppStartMenuDir" Name="MyApp"/>     </Directory>   </Directory> </Fragment> <Fragment Id="Components">   <Component Id="MyAppComp" Directory="INSTALLFOLDER" ...>     <!--The advertise flag below is to bypass ICE errors in WiX, the actual shortcut will not be advertises if those are disabled globally with DISABLEADVTSHORTCUTS-->     <File ..." KeyPath="yes">       <Shortcut Id="MyAppStartMenuLink" Directory="MyAppStartMenuDir" Advertise="yes" ... />     </File>     <RemoveFolder Id="StartMenuDirRemoved" Directory="MyAppStartMenuDir" On="uninstall" />   </Component> </Fragment> 

Note that this will put your shortcut together with the executable in one component. If this bothers you then use dummy registry key (as in the very well explained accepted self answer).