Creating shortcuts depending on program versions

[tatsmagina]

Dear all,

I have a question about creating program version dependent shortcuts in the Windows program menu.

I am using Install Shield 2014 and I am creating an MSI Basic project. After installing the program, a shortcut should be added to the Windows program menu. My problem is that there are two different program versions that need to be installable via the same installation file. Depending on which program version is installed, a shortcut with a specific name should be added to the program menu.

If version A is installed, a shortcut with the version A specific name is added to the menu.
If version B is installed, a shortcut with the version B specific name is added to the menu.

I have tried to enter the name of the version dependent shortcuts in the command line. However, I didn't manage to create the shortcut I needed.

I hope anybody can help me with this one.

Many thanks in advance,

[Evan_Border]

tatsmagina wrote:
Dear all,

I have a question about creating program version dependent shortcuts in the Windows program menu.

I am using Install Shield 2014 and I am creating an MSI Basic project. After installing the program, a shortcut should be added to the Windows program menu. My problem is that there are two different program versions that need to be installable via the same installation file. Depending on which program version is installed, a shortcut with a specific name should be added to the program menu.

If version A is installed, a shortcut with the version A specific name is added to the menu.
If version B is installed, a shortcut with the version B specific name is added to the menu.

I have tried to enter the name of the version dependent shortcuts in the command line. However, I didn't manage to create the shortcut I needed.

I hope anybody can help me with this one.

Many thanks in advance,

Dynamic shortcut names are not supported by Windows Installer, so you may need to use a custom action to create the shortcut. And I say "may need to" because I'm not entirely clear on what your install looks like...

...it almost seems as if you have two different target files, of which only one gets installed (based on the user's choices during the installation routine). If that is the situation, then those two target files should be in separate components, each with their own shortcut (with the appropriate version specific name). You would then simply place conditions on those two components so that only the appropriate component gets installed.

The following Flexera Software KB article has more information about Windows Installer's inability to create dynamically named shortcuts:
h t t p s : / / flexeracommunity.force.com/customer/articles/en_US/INFO/Dynamic-Shortcut-Names
https://flexeracommunity.force.com/customer/articles/en_US/INFO/Dynamic-Shortcut-Names

[DLee65]

As Evan stated Windows Installer does not support dynamic shortcut names.

I had to do this with a product before where depending on license level the shortcut name had to change. For example if the license level was 'basic' then the shortcut was App Basic; if the license was 'pro', then the shortcut was 'App Professional'.

The way I did this was to have a custom action that modified the shortcut table at runtime. The event would fire after validating the license level.

IF you are delivering two different EXE files then you shouldn't have any problems with the shortcut because each component can have its own shortcut with a unique name.

Fortunately I found a post I made several years ago that describes how to modify the shortcut at runtime if desired. https://community.flexerasoftware.com/showthread.php?182498-Shortcut-name-with-variable

Hopefully this helps.