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I have a Setup and Deployment project in Visual Studio 2010 which is using some merge modules to install some dependencies that my program requires to run. One of the MSM files contains an executable that I would like to create a shortcut to in the Program Files menu. Is this possible or is this (as I continue to learn...) another annoying limitation of the Setup and Deployment projects?

codewario
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You cannot link the shortcut to the merge module file. However, the shortcut target is formatted. So you can simply use a formatted value which will be resolved to your merge module file path.

For example, the shortcut target can be something like this:

[ProgramFilesFolder][Manufacturer]\[ProductName]\myFile.exe

This type of shortcut is created only if it's target exists on disk.

Cosmin
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  • How would I go about adding this to the setup project? The problem I run into is that I cannot create shortcuts or custom actions without first selecting an already existing component of the installer. – codewario May 24 '12 at 13:53
  • Visual Studio setup projects do not support this. You can either edit the generated MSI using Orca or use a different setup authoring tool. – Cosmin May 24 '12 at 14:32