Visual Studio Deployment Project - Create shortcut to deployed executable

visual-studio setup-deployment
Fred Strauss picture Fred Strauss · Jul 21, 2010 · Viewed 91k times · Source

I realize there is likely a simple method to do this but how does one create a desktop shortcut to the executable deployed by an MSI built using a Visual Studio Deployment project?

I imagine I need to use the Filesystem editor but when I create shortcut on the user's desktop I can't target the executable. I can only specify the target as the application folder not the specific executable.

Answer

roman m picture roman m · Dec 2, 2010

After wasting an hour, I got it done - VS 2010 ... VS 2017 (this article helped):

  1. In your Deployment Project go to File System Editor
  2. Click on "Application Folder" (I assume you have "Primary Output" from your projects there)
  3. Right click on "Primary Output" of the project you want to target with your shortcut - select "Create Shortcut to Primary Output ..."
  4. Rename shortcut
  5. Drag shortcut to Desktop / Programs Menu folder

That's it!

Related questions

Visual Studio not finding my Azure subscriptions

I have a working Azure account with various services already running. I receive monthly bills for these. Now, I created a workerrole in Visual Studio that I want to deploy. I get the "Publish Windows Azure Application" screen that asks …

Read More
How to configure post-build events for setup/deployment projects in Visual Studio

My solution has two projects. One is my actual project and another one is setup project. My actual project has one report folder where I store my all ssrs report. I have one folder in the setup project called "SSRS_…

Read More
How to include dependencies in Setup and Deployment Project?

I have a solution that consists of 3 projects. I've created a deployment project it is only including the dependencies from one of the projects in my solution. What I've done so far is in my Setup and Deployment project, I …

Read More