An advertised shortcut goes through the Windows Installer engine rather than
running the program (or document) directly. This enables Windows Installer
to check that all components of the required feature are present (which it
does by examining the KeyPath of each component of the feature that the
shortcut links to) and install them or repair them as necessary.
An advertised feature is one that isn't actually installed. This can occur
if the entire product is advertised through Group Policy or if the feature
is selected to be install-on-first-use. If an advertised feature contains an
advertised shortcut, and the user selects that shortcut, the feature will be
installed before Windows Installer then launches the shortcut (which should
launch the program contained in the feature).
If you've ever seen an Office application prompt you for its install CD when
you try to run it from a shortcut, you now know why.
If you don't think you need install-on-demand, repair-on-launch, or the
ability for domain administrators to advertise software through Group
Policy, by all means use non-advertised shortcuts.
--
Mike Dimmick
_____
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Scott Palmer
Sent: 18 December 2006 22:46
To: Wilson, Phil
Cc: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Trouble with Shortcuts...
When I made my installer with WiX was the first time I had ever seen the
greyed out target. Everyone in the office that I mentioned it to indicated
that it was new to them I don't use MS Office, and the Office users around
here weren't familiar with them. So they may have used them, but they
didn't know it :-). I would have to disagree that they are "more normal"
just based on my experience. They certainly aren't "better" given that the
user is left wondering what the exact nature of the target is, and the user
has no ability to tweak it, such as adding a command line argument.
What exactly is the difference between an advertised shortcut and an
advertised feature? I had assumed that an advertised shortcut was simply an
implementation detail of advertised features.
Scott
On 12/18/06, Wilson, Phil <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Advertised shortcuts are more common that you imagine, and more normal too.
Anytime you look at the properties of a shortcut and the Target is greyed
out, it'll be an advertised shortcut (differentiating from advertised
features). Every Office 2003 shortcut looks like that, so clearly a LOT of
people have used them and seen them!
Phil Wilson
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