InstallAware

Of course, Delete Files Recursive, or Delete Files MSIcode commands.

Well, looks like you lied. If you had checked the value of $DESKTOPDIR$ you would have seen that it points to the current user profile folder, whereas the shortcut is actually created in the all users profile folder. This would seem to give us a first clue about what is going wrong here, which is why I asked these additional questions, but you found it more convenient to lie, to not check the information I asked for, and pretend as if you did; and on top of it harass support about the questions we're asking.

Shame on you, and your support access to InstallAware has been terminated effective immediately. WE DO NOT TOLERATE ABUSE OF OUR SUPPORT RESOURCES.

Just would like to comment that I followed this post and comments, tried to replicate the problem myself and have not been able to, except as stated by support.

There are no issues removing shortcuts on the desktop or anywhere else at least in IA 8.

I also don't think the guy was too out of line, at least what I saw that was publicly viewable, but don't know the back story. Maybe he just made a mistake.

If you do not have experience with old Wise Script, MSI code at first may be a bit intimidating until you get the hang of it.

This customer abused support by reporting findings he did not have. He reported what he thought ought to be happening, not what was really happening. The two are often different. As such, he has lost access to InstallAware support permanently.

I have investigated this issue in some detail, and the results are very interesting. I will post them here for the benefit of all users who are respectful of InstallAware support.

It would appear that Windows Installer has a bug when creating shortcuts on the Desktop. You have to align the installation mode of your setup ($ALLUSERS$=TRUE or FALSE) with the variable that holds the Desktop folder physical location, typically $DESKTOPDIR$. What this alignment means is: if you are installing for all users, make sure your desktop folder variable, as used in the Create Shortcut command, points to the physical path for the "all users" Desktop, such as C:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Desktop. Or, if doing a just me install, make sure the target is something like C:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\Desktop.

Now the strange thing is, as long as this alignment is occurring, everything works fine. If not, Windows Installer auto-corrects, and breaks up. For instance, if you specify the physical path for all users when doing a just me install, your desktop shortcut STILL appears in your own desktop folder, and not the all users folder. Similarly, if your desktop path points to your own desktop folder, but the install mode is all users, then the shortcut appears on the desktop of all users! And when you uninstall in the latter scenario, IF you are using another account than the account you originally installed the software from, the shortcut remains on the desktop and is not removed.

This does not seem to replicate with any MSIcode command other than Create Shortcut and it does not seem to replicate with any folder other than the Desktop. Some very strange stuff going on here...

In this case, we have escalated this directly to Microsoft. Moral of the story: never assume anything!

Just read this thread as I am having the same problem. Wow, hope this Nesmith guy has been fired or moved off Technical Support. That was the most ridiculous exchange I have ever read between a customer and a supplier. Nesmith was out of line terminating this guys access to tech support simply because he made some mistakes. Just had to post that. IA can delete this if they wish

spicymikey,

I believe that he no longer works at IA. I must admit and to be fair I learned a lot from him but like many have mentioned he did have a way of upsetting folks. I think you'll agree that since Aviv took over monitoring and replying to the forums that civility has returned to normal.

Yes, Aviv has been very helpful as I came online with this product. The product itself is also very good. Sorry, I was just reading this thread looking for an answer to my problem and was stunned by what I was reading. I had to respond