WIX v4 installer - How to create shortcuts?

Question

I am new to WIX, and trying to use the heatWave package for visual studio to create an installer for my application. I am trying to use Version 4.

I have my basic installer working. But I am having an issue with creating a shortcut on both the start menu and desktop. I am trying to follow the V4 tutorial and documentation, but I have found it very lacking in this department. (what is there is great, but not for this bit).

I have fallen back to trying to use the V3 documentation for the shortcuts, but I cannot get it working. Possibly because im getting the concepts between V3 and v4 muddled up.

In my package.wxs file, I have the following. AppComponents is the content of my ProgramFile directory, and that works. I am trying to get StartMenu, to be the components needed for the start menu shortcut.

  <Feature Id="Main">
      <ComponentGroupRef Id="AppComponents" />
      <ComponentGroupRef Id="StartMenu" />
</Feature>

I then have a file called StartMenu.wsx, and inside it I have the following.

<Fragment>
  <ComponentGroup Id="StartMenu" Directory="?????? what should this be???">

          <Component Id="ApplicationShortcut" Guid="25759f5a-xx-aaa09414394f">
          <Shortcut Id="ApplicationStartMenuShortcut"
                    Name="myApp"
                    Description="foobar"
                    Target="[myapp.exe]"
                    WorkingDirectory="INSTALLFOLDER"/>
          <RemoveFolder Id="CleanUpShortCut" Directory="????" On="uninstall"/>
          <RegistryValue Root="HKCU" Key="Software\MyApp" Name="installed" Type="integer" Value="1" KeyPath="yes"/>
      </Component>
      
  </ComponentGroup>

I do also have my Folders.wxs file that I have tried to use as the directory reference, but no luck in getting it working.

<Directory Id="ProgramMenuFolder">
      <Directory Id="ApplicationProgramsFolder" Name="myApp"/>
</Directory>

The Wix project builds and the installer works, but the shortcut is not apearing on my start menu. I'm using windows 11.

Is there anywhere, where I can find a guide for how to do this for V4, or can you spot what it is i am doing wrong? I'm not really sure how the Directory="" paramater should be used in this scenario, as V3 and 4 seem to differ in this regard.

Any help or pointers much appreciated.

Answer 1

The answer to how i solved this problem, can be found in this youtube video, from @rob mensching above - thankyou.

In the end, it was very simple. In my AppComponents.wxs file, i had the following:

<Component>
        <File Source="myApp.exe" />
    </Component>

All i had to do was enter a shortcut under here.

    <Component>
        <File Source="myApp.exe">
            
            <Shortcut Name="MyAppName" Directory="DesktopFolder" 
                      Advertise="yes" WorkingDirectory="INSTALLFOLDER" />
            
            <Shortcut Name="myApp" Directory="ProgramMenuFolder" 
                      Advertise="yes" WorkingDirectory="INSTALLFOLDER" />
        </File>
    </Component>

I hope this helps someone, and look forward to reading the new and updated WIX4 documentation when it arrives.

Answer 2

The WiX v4 tutorial is still under development. You can sign up for updates on the backlog page.

The Directory usage between v3 and v4 has not changed. In your case, I'd use AplicationProgramsFolder in the places you have question marks so that the directory for the shortcut is created.

The Shortcut Target attribute should contain the File Id of the file you want the shortcut to target using the filepath syntax (property deference prefixed with a #), like: [#MyFileId].

I personally, wouldn't author the Shortcut this way. I'd prefer the Advertise option that lives in the same Component as the file.

There are a few Deployment Dojo episodes, starting with 22, that cover shortcuts. You might find the in-depth coverage there useful to understand what is being done here.