Create shortcut to desktop using WiX

Question

So I have this setup project in Wix and wanted to have a shortcut on the desktop. This must be easy you might think. But that is not the case. All the code snippets found on the Internet did not work. After a few hours of struggling and reading the documentation I finally got it right, so I am sharing it with you here.

Answer 1

The shortcut is a non-advertised one, hope this helps someone. Remember to put the component in your feature tag.

<Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
    <Directory Id="DesktopFolder" Name="Desktop">
        <Component Id="ApplicationShortcutDesktop" Guid="*">
            <Shortcut Id="ApplicationDesktopShortcut"
                Name="Text under your icon"
                Description="Comment field in your shortcut"
                Target="[MYAPPDIRPROPERTY]MyApp.exe"
                WorkingDirectory="MYAPPDIRPROPERTY"/>
            <RemoveFolder Id="DesktopFolder" On="uninstall"/>
            <RegistryValue
                Root="HKCU"
                Key="Software\MyCompany\MyApplicationName"
                Name="installed"
                Type="integer"
                Value="1"
                KeyPath="yes"/>
        </Component>
    </Directory>

    <Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder" Name="PFiles">
        <Directory Id="MyCompany" Name="MyCompany">
            <Directory Id="MYAPPDIRPROPERTY" Name="MyAppName">
                <!-- main installation files -->
            </Directory>
        </Directory>
    </Directory>
</Directory>