Desktop shortcut not getting updated

[nmsams]

I do not create desktop shortcuts when installing my product but some users make their own.

When upgrading to a major or minor version before (on IS12) these shortcuts were still working.

Now that I'm using IS 2008, the desktop shortcuts are not working anymore. When you click on the properties of the shortcut the Target field is blank.

Is this a known issue with IS 2008? Has anyone else come across this? Is there a work around?

thanks.

[nmsams]

I should also mention that the version using IS 2008 is a major upgrade from the version using IS 12.

Would it help if I had the install create a desktop icon?

[MichaelU]

Are these desktop shortcuts available as part of your install? If not, how are they created - are they copied from shortcuts you create in the start menu (advertised or non-advertised) or are they created manually by the user and show a path before the upgrade?

[nmsams]

They are created by the user. I create shortcuts that appear in the start menu under programs. The user then creats their own shortcut on the desktop. Until I starting using IS 2008, these shortscuts were never affected. Now when I install my major upgrate with IS 2008, the Target field gets wiped out.

[jedimaster_mark]

InstallShield isn't going to magically update something it didn't create. It sounds to me like the users are creating shortcuts that either:
1) point to other shortcuts, which are being changed in the new install OR
2) point to a file that is either named differently or in a new location on the new install

The upgrade process would either update or remove and replace the old software, depending on the scale of the upgrade. So it could be that the target is no longer valid...

[nmsams]

I know that Installshield will not update shortcuts it didn't create. I would expect the shortcuts to be exactly the way they were before I installed the upgrade. My original post should have been titled, "Why do my shortcuts stop working" instead of why are they not getting updated.

So, in my test scenario, I'm installing the same product, with the same exes spelled exactly the same. It's being installed in the same location as before. So why would the shortcut all of sudden stop working?

I have done many major upgrades before using IS 10.5, 11, 11.5, 12...but have never had a client report a problem with shortcuts until now.

[jedimaster_mark]

Well, I've seen this sort of behavior before. I would say that your litmus test should be to uninstall the existing software on a machine that has one of these shortcuts, and then to re-install it again on the same machine (without touching the shortcut in between). See what happens then. Since the installer behavior would be to uninstall and re-install in two stages, it could be that the shortcut is losing its target in between.

Has there been a change of OS or SP level since that last time you did this when you had no problems?

[nmsams]

Ok, I tried your scenario.

I installed my latest version (which uses IS2008) on my test machine (WinXP). I created a short cut on the desktop.

Then I uninstalled the product and checked the properties of the short cut. The target was missing but it wasn't grayed out like it is when I encounter the problem when I do a major upgrade from a previous version.

I then re-installed the same version on the testmachine and the target of the short cut had the correct value again. I tested the short cut and it launched my application.

So basically I had no problems.

So why does the short cut not repopulate the target field in a major upgrade situation?

[jedimaster_mark]

Okay, at this point I'm honestly shotgunning... but if it were me, I would next install your original installer. Make your shortcut. Uninstall it. Next, install your new installer as if it were a new installation of software. See if the shortcut repopulates the target in that case. It may be that the shortcut is aware of which version of the target it's pointing to...

[nmsams]

Tested scenario #2:

Installed older version (IS 12) and created a shortcut on the desktop.
Uninstalled older version. Target blank on shortcut.
Installed newer version (IS 2008). Target is still blank, shortcut does not work. Also, icon of shortcut also does not appear (this was not a problem when doing a major upgrade, the shortcut still had the icon of my product).

Question, do you think this might have something to do with digital signatures? I think that's the only major thing I've changed going from IS 12 to IS 2008. I'm now signing all .exe, .dll and .ocx files. Would this cause the shortcut to "loose" where it's pointing?

[jedimaster_mark]

Oh, I think the odds of that are fairly good. Again, you can test that. If you can get unsigned versions of your files, build a test-only version of your installer from the unsigned files and see if that behaves the way it used to. If it does, then at least you know what is causing your problem. As for fixing it... well, short of writing a CA to address this, you'd probably be out of luck.

[nmsams]

Well, it's not the digital signatures. I tried installing old version, and then installing new version with no digital signatures on the files. I still get the same problem. The shortcut does not work.

I think i'm going to put in a support call to Macrovision.

[nmsams]

I placed a support call and basically Installshield told me that they can't duplicate the problem so they are saying it's a Windows problem. Although I'm using the same version of Windows I always have and it's just now become a problem now that I'm on a new version of Installshield. But they closed the incident because they can't fix what they don't see.

[SherylSikora]

I'm pretty sure that I have been able to reproduce your issue. BUT... I can reproduce it in IS 12 as well as IS 2008. So I'm not really sure how you haven't run into this yet. But here are my findings:

Here is my test scenario (using IS12 or IS2008):
1. Create an MSI project with 1 file (Notepad.exe for example) and set that file as a key file
2. Create an advertised shortcut to that file
3. Build and install
4. Copy the installed shortcut to the desktop
5. Update the project with a new version and a new product code
6. Create a major upgrade item in the Upgrades view for this product (same upgrade code)
7. Build and install
8. Notice that the desktop shortcut is now broken

Can you confirm for me that you can also see this behavior by running the above scenario on your machine?

I am assuming you are using advertised shortcuts because that is the only way I can reproduce your problem. The shortcut is breaking because the ProductCode is changing with the major upgrade. With the advertised shortcut, the shortcut and icon are tied to that ProductCode (it appears). When the major upgrade happens, the original cache for the shortcut and icon are destroyed and replaced with a new cache pointing to the new shortcut and icon. Therefore your copied shortcut on the desktop no longer has anything to point to at all.

I found that if you DO NOT use an advertised shortcut you can work around this behavior. Can you try that and see if that workaround works for you?

[nmsams]

Actually, I'm not creating any desktop shortcuts within my install. I'm having a problem with manually created shortcuts that the user creates after they have installed my product.

Steps:
1. Install product using install created with IS 12
2. Manually create desktop shortcut
3. Install major upgrade of product using install created with IS 2008 (same upgrade codes, different product codes, everything else the same).
4. Try to launch product with shortcut and it doesn't work.

In my opinion (and the opinion of the support tech that handled my issue) if IS didn't create the shortcut, it shouldn't be touching it at all during the major upgrade and it should still work (in theory). And it worked when I had major upgrades going from IS 11 to 11.5 or 11.5 to 12. We only change Installshield versions when we do major upgrades and we've never gotten a complaint from a client before about shortcuts no longer working.

[SherylSikora]

I did not create the desktop shortcut in the install. I created a shortcut in the Start Menu and manually created a copy of that to the desktop. The installer will not update the desktop shortcut because it doesn't know about it. But it does know about the previous install's ProductCode. When the major upgrade takes place it removes all association to it, therefore breaking that manual desktop shortcut that points to the shortcut cache.

Like I said, I don't know why you are seeing this now and not previously. But can you try the workaround I suggested?

[nmsams]

Come to think of it, I don't think I had my shortcuts set to advertised in previous versions. So that's probably why I'm seeing the problem now. I will definitly try that. Will that "break" anything else though? Doesn't Vista require that shortcuts be advertised?

[SherylSikora]

You may run into some validation issues, although I am not positive. I would suggest running the upgrade through our validation suite and see if it comes up with anything. As far a Vista goes, the OS itself doesn't require advertised shortcuts. The Vista logo specs may, but I am not sure. Our Vista validation suite may help you there too.

[Wayne_Yue]

Hi nmsams & SherylSikora,

I ran into the same issue of "Manually created desktop shortcuts contain blank targets (IS 2008)" on MAJOR upgrade.

I tried changing the shortcuts to "No" Advertised (it was "Yes" in the previous project), and then upgrade .. same problem.

I tried changing the "Major upgrade settings" to "Install setup then remove unneeded files", and then upgrade .. same problem.

I tried both together, still the same problem. Did you manage to fix it somehow in your case? Thanks..

Wayne :confused:

[MattQVI]

I have a similar problem, except that in my latest upgrade the desktop shortcut changed names. It adds the new one but doesn't remove the old one... even with the information being in the RemoveFile table (as I was instructed to do before).

BTW this desktop shortcuts WAS created by InstallShield.