How to create a desktop shortcut based upon user Input? - c#

I am creating setup for a Windows Forms Application using Visual Studio 2010. I know how to create shortcut on the desktop during the setup. My question is,
How to add a checkbox during the setup asking the user "Do you want to create a shortcut on the desktop"?

What I found out, adding your own checkboxes can be a bit cumbersome, but here is an in-depth guide I stumbled upon:
Create custom dialogs for use in your Visual Studio Setup projects
The article explains it for the VS2010 using Visual Studio's own installer dialogs and would probably be the way to go.
For VS2003 there is a bit different guide, might be worth checking out:
Conditional Install of Desktop and Quick Launch Shortcuts
(possible duplicate of this)

Related

Visual studio installer project multi language support

I have a c# WPF application which is able to switch in deferent language as per customer wants. I also created a setup project for the same. I need to make the setup project also be able to switch language.
The problem is, the 'Visual studio installer project' doesn't have an option to do that. There is an option to set language for MSI. However dynamically changing the language is not supported
I have already googled it and no solution found.
some of the similar posts links are below. which also have no correct answer
c# Setup Project Localization
How to create preview choosing setup language in Visual Studio Project Installer?
Any idea how to do that. Thanks in advance
I don't have much experience regarding this, but:
The Wix installer seems to have support for localization:
https://wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3/howtos/ui_and_localization/
VDProject seems to be the right way to move forward aswell:
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/buckh/visual-studio-setup-projects-vdproj-will-not-ship-with-future-versions-of-vs/

Visual Studio Shortcut keys for Bookmarks

I was trying to practice keyboard shortcuts to become a more productive programmer. I came across a shortcut that said Toggle Bookmark is Ctrl+K,K. But in my environment the shortcut key is Ctrl+B,Ctrl+T.
I am trying to figure out what is causing this difference?
I am running Visual Studio Enterprise 2015 with ReSharper 9.2 working in a C# web project
I doubt the website is wrong because other websites say the same thing.
Source:
http://visualstudioshortcuts.com/2015/
Different keyboard mapping schemes have different shortcuts, you set the one you want in the keyboard options: the default scheme uses Ctrl+K,Ctrl+K for toggling bookmarks, so you have yours set to one of the others, probably "Visual C# 2005" as per "Bookmark Window Shortcut Keys, Visual C# Scheme"
Maybe it's just a mistake in source? Never actually need this shortcut, but tried
CTRL+K+K instead of CTRL+K, and it works

How to create a custom installation process for .Net application?

I recently created a Windows application project using C#. I have completed all the codings. Now i have to deploy the project. So, i created the SETUP of the project using the visual studio's SETUP PROJECT from the Menu. It works fine, i dont have any kind of issues with it. But the genreral setup i get after deploying the poroject is MSi and it looks very simple.
But the thing i need to know is that, is there any way to create a custom setup? The thing i mean to say is that i want to add logo for my project inside the installer. And certain things like during the installation process, the wizzard should ask for user name and password and few more things like these. For eg: if you are insalling a software like visual studio or some other software the installation wizzard is very catchy and the look & feel is good. Similarly i want to get a setup for my project.
Im not sure how to achieve this.
I tried using the installer class of the visual studio project and im not sure if its the correct option for me so instead of wasting time i just thought to ask it here?
I thought that there may be few third party tools for achieveing this. I tried InnoSetup 5.2 but there i have to write programs manually which is similar to pascal.
Also i heard about the tool called as InstallShield, but it costs and im looking for a free alternative.
Is there any third party tool or software for creating SETUP of visual studio projects.? Or is there any method which i can follow to obtain my customized setup?
You can use a Microsoft Setup project or WIX (easily integrate with Visual Studio).
Both are free.
You can do almost all of your customization in setup project by adding custom actions.
WIX (window installer xml) is the better option. You can do a complete customization from wix but it take some time to understand as it is totally based on XML. Microsoft office 2007 and later setups are based on wix.
The difference between wix and Setup project is that you have more control over the GUI of setup in wix than setup project and wix allow much more customization then setup project.
Take a look at this step by step tutorial for wix.
go through topics here Deployment Tasks and Walkthroughs - setup projects are very flexible especially with custom actions. you definitely can setup your own images and tune UI.
If you use Visual Studio MSI
For the first question about adding Icon (based on SplashBitmap), see this MSDN page.
For the second question about authentification input, refer to this other MSDN page.
You can especially use Action personalized, you can follow these steps:
Select the Installer project custom actions in the Solution Explorer. On the View menu, point to Editor, and choose Custom Actions.
The Custom Actions Editor appears.
In the Custom Actions Editor, select the Install node. On the Action menu, choose Add Custom Action.
In the dialog box, select an item in the project, double-click Application Folder.
Select the Primary output from OpenWeb (Active).
Click OK to close the dialog box.
In the Properties window, select the InstallerClass property and set its value to false.
In the Build menu, choose Build Custom Action Installer.

How to create an installer and uninstaller for a Windows Forms application

I created an installer for my Windows Forms application and I added the project output to programs menu. But now what I want is 'I should have a folder in programs menu in that it should contain both install and uninstall options'.
Please help me. Thanks in advance.
The easiest way is to create a Setup and Deployment project in Visual Studio.
I have to agree with Sir Richard's answer, but I wanted to add the instructions on how add an uninstaller using the Setup and Deployment project found in Visual Studio.
Here's a useful link you can work on: How to add a Uninstall option in Visual Studio Setup project without writing code
If you have advanced scenarios that the Setup and Deployment project can't handle, I'd advise looking into WiX.
WiX is an extremely mature Microsoft opensource project, having first launched in 2004 and is still active today. It even provides a VS extension to assist you with getting started and intellisense for the configuration.
Be warned though: WiX primarily uses XML files that use MSI's domain language. It's certainly not a tool you use if "create an installer" wasn't allocated specifically in your project plan.
You can try with NSIS, is open source and very easy...
"NSIS (Nullsoft Scriptable Install System) is a professional open source system to create Windows installers. It is designed to be as small and flexible as possible and is therefore very suitable for internet distribution."
in his website you can find tutorials and examples, the link is: http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page
I hope this help you!

Creating Windows Installer Project in Visual Studio

I've been struggling with Visual Studio to create a windows installer msi.
This is what I was hoping to create in the msi:
Installer opens and first page has a couple fields where you can enter various config locations, including being able to browse, and also some drop downs with various config setups.
Click Next or Finish or whatever and custom C# code I have written gets executed depending on the choices chosen by the user.
When looking at the Visual Studio Installer Project, I can add a dialog, but they are all predefined for me. I was hoping for something like when you create a Windows Forms Application.
Is this not possible? Is the windows installer project just that inflexible? What are my other options in Visual Studio (note I don't want to use another program that may be out there)?
The Installer class gives you a way to take get full control of what happens during installation for a VS installation project. However, you would have to use a modal dialog to collect the information you're describing, so the user experiecne would not be as smooth as an integrated wizard page.
I strongly suggest you to take a look into WIX.
It is more complex than VS install projects but it is much more flexible also

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