Creating Shortcuts

Create a feature containing the file that you want the shortcut to launch.

Open the Shortcuts/Folders view.

In the Shortcuts explorer, right-click a destination folder and then click the type of shortcut or folder you want to create:

New Shortcut—Creates a standard shortcut. Launching a shortcut created this way does not launch the Windows Installer. If any dependent files, registry entries, or .ini files are missing, the shortcut launches the file anyway.

New Advertised Shortcut—Creates an advertised shortcut. If anything is missing when the end user clicks the shortcut, it launches Windows Installer, which will install all the missing dependencies and then launch the file. If there are no missing dependencies, it launches the file without launching Windows Installer.

New Shortcut to Preexisting file—Creates a shortcut that points to a file that is not installed with your installation. For example, you could use this to create a shortcut to Internet Explorer or to UNC paths.

New Uninstall Shortcut—Creates a shortcut that automatically starts the uninstallation process for an application.

New Folder—Creates a new folder. You can create a program folder if you want your shortcut to appear under your company name, for example.

Configure properties for the shortcut.

An advertised shortcut can be created for a file only if it is designated as a portable executable file. You can indicate which files you want to be treated as portable executable files on the File Extensions tab of the Options dialog box.