Quick Launch shortcut in Vista and Windows 7

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InstallerGeek created the topic: Quick Launch shortcut in Vista and Windows 7
The right substitute for Vista/XP like Quick Launch shortcut is to make the link pinned to the taskbar (IMO).
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> It appears as simple as putting the shortcut in User Pinned\TaskBar subfolder of Quick Launch folder in Windows 7.
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> Now, I can condition the installation of the component containing the Shortcut element.
> When OS is Windows 7 shortcut gets created in QL6 directory, otherwise in QL4.
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> Since this would unnecessarily create User Pinned\TaskBar folders on Vista and XP, does anybody know if there is a more elegant way to accomplish the same goal?

applicationPackaging replied the topic: Re: Quick Launch shortcut in Vista and Windows 7
Tony, how do you catch the case, that your user only can install applications elevated as administrator (don’t assume everybody is admin on his/her machine)? Wouldn’t the quick launch shortcut then only appear on the administrator’s quick launch bar and hence is invisible for the normal user(s)?

Tom

applicationPackaging replied the topic: Re: Quick Launch shortcut in Vista and Windows 7
Because of various other factors, I require from users to have admin rights when installing and running the app. So this is not a problem for me (at least not for now).

But you don’t have to be admin to install the application. Administrator can approve of certain MSI to be installed by non-elevated users on his network and MSI takes care of elevating the rights so that, for example, folders and files can be created in Program Files.

I tested this scenario once: I allowed all users on my machine to run MSI and as non-elevated user I had no problem installing the app. I had problems running it because some of installed apps write to Program Files subfolders, but that’s another issue.

applicationPackaging replied the topic: Re: Quick Launch shortcut in Vista and Windows 7
I am not sure if I understood the question well and if my previous response makes sense. But this is how would I try doing it if I had to do it and if WiX didn’t let me do declaratively:

Even if MSI (or more correctly parts of install) run with elevated privileges, I think that immediate custom action runs non-elevated and I can find current user’s ApplicationData folder via Shell API call GetSpecialFolder. I can then create shortcut links programmatically in custom action code as seen below (I don’t know where I got it from, probably some MSDN article).

//
//
// CreateLink – uses the Shell’s IShellLink and IPersistFile interfaces
// to create and store a shortcut to the specified object.
//
// Returns the result of calling the member functions of the interfaces.
//
// Parameters:
// lpszPathObj – address of a buffer containing the path of the object.
// lpszPathLink – address of a buffer containing the path where the
// Shell link is to be stored.
// lpszDesc – address of a buffer containing the description of the
// Shell link.
// lpszIconLink – address of a buffer containing the path where the
// Shell link icon can be found.
// index – index of the icon
//

HRESULT CreateLink(LPCTSTR lpszPathObj, LPCTSTR lpszPathLink, LPCTSTR lpszDesc, LPCTSTR lpszIconLink, int index) {
HRESULT hres;
IShellLink* psl;

// Get a pointer to the IShellLink interface.
hres=::CoCreateInstance(CLSID_ShellLink, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER,
IID_IShellLink, (LPVOID*)&psl);
if(SUCCEEDED(hres))
{
IPersistFile* ppf;

// Set the path to the shortcut target and add the description.
psl->SetPath(lpszPathObj);
psl->SetDescription(lpszDesc);
if(lpszIconLink!=0)
psl->SetIconLocation(lpszIconLink, index);

// Query IShellLink for the IPersistFile interface for saving the
// shortcut in persistent storage.
hres=psl->QueryInterface(IID_IPersistFile, (LPVOID*)&ppf);

if(SUCCEEDED(hres))
{
USES_CONVERSION;

// Ensure that the string is Unicode.
LPWSTR wsz=CT2W(lpszPathLink);

// Add code here to check return value from MultiByteWideChar
// for success.

// Save the link by calling IPersistFile::Save.
hres = ppf->Save(wsz, TRUE);
ppf->Release();
}
psl->Release();
}
return hres;
}
InstallerGeek replied the topic: Re: Quick Launch shortcut in Vista and Windows 7
There’s no need to do that: The Shortcut table can be used to create shortcuts in any directory. And it takes care of uninstall and rollback, which your code does not.

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