When a shortcut is created to the primary output for a VS2005 project, the shortcut target is set to the application folder name rather than the full path of the executable. This is OK on a per-user install, but on a pre-machine install, the first time a user other than the installer tries to use the application the install routine fires up again (presumably attempting som sort of repair) which causes problems if the application was installed from somewhere to which the current user does not have access. If I delete the shortcuts created by the install and manually create them to point to the full path of the executable immediately after the install then it works fine. As I amy going to do thousands of installs this is not practical.
Does anybody know how to work around this problem ?

Setup projects create what are known as advertised shortcuts. They point to 
the app, but internally they validate that the MSI product is installed ok. 
DISABLEADVTSHORTCUTS is what you need to manually add into your MSI file 
with Orca to turn off the repair behavior.

The repair implies that although you are installing for Everyone there are 
some per-user things being created. The repair that occurs when another user 
logs on will install them if you let it. So there's something user-specific 
missing, and it is most likely a file, and if you've installed it to a 
user-specific location then the only user who actually gets a copy is the 
installing user. This is a long-winded way of saying that other users may 
not see all the files you've installed because they are in one of the 
installing user's profile folders.

-- 
Phil Wilson
[MVP Windows Installer]


<TonyMac> wrote in message news:OyKKfmn0HHA.600@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

> When a shortcut is created to the primary output for a VS2005 project, the 
> shortcut target is set to the application folder name rather than the full 
> path of the executable. This is OK on a per-user install, but on a 
> pre-machine install, the first time a user other than the installer tries 
> to use the application the install routine fires up again (presumably 
> attempting som sort of repair) which causes problems if the application 
> was installed from somewhere to which the current user does not have 
> access. If I delete the shortcuts created by the install and manually 
> create them to point to the full path of the executable immediately after 
> the install then it works fine. As I amy going to do thousands of installs 
> this is not practical.
> Does anybody know how to work around this problem ?
>