WiX Setup project programmenu shortcut without uninstall option

Question

I have set up a wix set up project that produces my application's msi installer. I have created a desktop shortcut and a program menu shortcut. In order to have the program menu shortcut, I have to specify a RemoveFolder element in the shortcut component which essentially creates an uninstall shortcut with it.

My question is, is there a way to create the program menu shortcut without having the uninstall shortcut? I would like the user to uninstall from going to the add/remove programs in the Control Panel.

I can simply not add the programmenu shortcut, but then the only way to use my application is via the desktop shortcut. It would not be a good user experience if they cannot find the application through the start/program menu. Thus I want to have a program menu shortcut but without the uninstall shortcut.

Any help would be appreciated.

Suhaib Ahmad Suhaib Ahmad · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-14T07:45:08

I realise that this was a very stupid question to ask in the first place. All I had to do was remove one line of code.

<!-- Start Menu Shortcut-->
<DirectoryRef Id="ApplicationProgramsFolder">
    <Component Id="ApplicationShortcut" Guid="PUT-GUID-HERE">
        <Shortcut Id="ApplicationStartMenuShortcut" Name="devapp" Description="My Application" Target="[#devapp.exe]" WorkingDirectory="APPLICATIONROOTDIRECTORY" />
        <!-- Uncomment the line below to have an uninstall shortcut in the program menu. -->
        <!--<Shortcut Id="UninstallProduct" Name="Uninstall devapp" Description="Uninstalls devapp" Target="[System64Folder]msiexec.exe" Arguments="/x [ProductCode]" />-->
        <RemoveFolder Id="CleanUpShortCut" Directory="ApplicationProgramsFolder" On="uninstall" />
        <RegistryValue Root="HKCU" Key="Software\CompanyName\ApplicationName" Name="installed" Type="integer" Value="1" KeyPath="yes" />
    </Component>
</DirectoryRef>

WiX Setup project programmenu shortcut without uninstall option

1 Answers