Shortcuts in Windows 8

[JeffryPaul]

My installaware setup creates several shortcuts in the All Users Start Menu folder. Surprisingly, all of the newly created shortcuts appear on the Windows 8 Metro interface.
Is there a setting in Create Shortcut that restricts the shortcut from being added to the Metro interface?

[FrancescoT]

Dear User,

let me check ... personally I am just starting with win 8.

Regards

[Bob T Bunny]

Hi,

Did this get solved? I have the same issue. All the shortcuts, whether the option for Pin to Metro is ticked or not, appear on the Metro interface. I'm using InstallAware 2012, build 9.26.11. If it makes a difference, the project was made a few versions ago now, and been upgraded as time has gone by.

As a side note, is there a way to make your own Metro menu to pin your shortcuts to, rather than just making them appear at the end of the main one? That would really be cool. Similar to the way you can make an IIS Application Pool, and then install your web app to it.

Cheers,

Bob T

[FrancescoT]

Dear Bob,

actually I can't give any further news about this.
Please remember that because an official release of Windows 8 has not released yet, some integrations may works differently accross the actually distributed beta versions.

Regarding your request "to make your own Metro menu to shortcuts to", this will be forwarded to our development team.

Regards

[Bob T Bunny]

I'm now installing onto the RTM version of Windows 8, available on MSDN and other official sources. Same thing is happening - any Start Menu shortcut also gets pinned to Metro.

In my instance I have an InstallAware native engine-based installation which installs the Borland Database Engine, a couple of registry entries and has 1 shortcut. That shortcut is pinned to the Metro desktop during installation even though the option is not ticked.

~InstallAware Clipboard Data~
~Create Shortcut~
~{CD4441D6-502E-4CEC-87D9-5BD9BA79AC0C}~
~$TARGETDIR$\BDEAdmin.exe~
~BDEAdmin~
~$SHORTCUTFILESALL$~
~~
~~
~~
~|TRUE~
~|BDEAdmin~
~0|~

Is it possible to have this investigated now that the final version of Windows 8 is available?

I have attached my project (without the BDE msi, as I suspect its distribution would be frowned upon) in case it helps.

Thanks,

Bob

[FrancescoT]

Dear Bob,

I belive this has been changed with "InstallAware NX" the new major version release.

- Start Screen and Shortcuts: Keep Windows 8's controversial new Start Screen clean by unpinning your secondary shortcuts during installation. Mark any shortcut with the "Run as Administrator" option to force elevation, especially perfect for legacy applications.

Regards

[Bob T Bunny]

Hi Francesco,

Sounds perfect. So it's the exact opposite of the "Pin to Metro" option that's already there but doesn't do anything (presumably due to design changes in Windows 8 before release).

You know the next obvious question... Any timeframe for the release of the next version?

Thanks,

Bob

[Bob T Bunny]

Found the answer with about 20 seconds of effort - this Friday. Excellent.

Cheers,

Bob

[FrancescoT]

[JeffryPaul]

I am trying to hide icons that appear in a subfolder of the All Users Start Menu.

I am using Installaware NX 14.02. Even though the shortcut is configured so that the "Inclusion on Start Screen" is checked in "Disable Shortcut Feature", the icon still appears on the Metro interface when he shortcut is to an EXE file. (Links to websites and documents do not appear on the Metro Start Screen)


Is this an Installaware bug or a Windows 8 "feature"?


Here's my code for the shortcut:
~InstallAware Clipboard Data~
~Create Shortcut~
~{073CAD6A-6C98-4497-91C8-5282B689837C}~
~$TARGETDIR$\Common\Myprogram.exe|FALSE~
~Advanced Configuration~
~$SHORTCUTFOLDER$\Help|TRUE~
~~
~~
~$TARGETDIR$\Common|FALSE~
~|FALSE~
~|~
~0|~

[FrancescoT]

Dear JeffryPaul,

Let me verify it ... Actually I'm not an expert of WIN 8 ( ... to be honest, I'm not quite sure if I like it).

Regards

[Phil Lee]

I've just built my first installer in Windows 8 RTM using InstallAware NX (Build 8.9.12). I've found the option "Inclusion on Start Screen (Windows 8)" in the Disable Shortcut Features section of the Create Shortcut dialog does not work for shortcuts to EXE files. Is this a problem with InstallAware NX or a limitation of Windows 8? I'd really like to keep our installer user friendly and only install a shortcut to our main app to the Start Screen in Windows 8.

[FrancescoT]

Dear Phil,

first try using InstallAware NX 14.1 (from our download page) and see what happens.

Anyway, I suspect that still exist some strange behaviour with Win8 itself and shortcut settings.

Regards

[Phil Lee]

I've downloaded 14.1 from the website and installed it on my computer. The build number shown in the Version dialog is still 8.19.12 and the modified date is miae.exe is 18/08/2012. The exe has no version details in its properties.

I've rebuilt my installer using this version and still have the problem of two exe files being pinned to the Start screen, despite my having selected the option to prevent them from being pinned. Please will you look into this.

[FrancescoT]

Dear Phil,

I personally tested it using the last Win 8 distribution and I found exactly the opposite.
The application it is never pinned to start screen even if required.

I belive exist a problem with the OS causing the problem ... I suspect that we will remember this OS in future ... and not for its amazing functionality.

Regards