LV2013: installer, shortcut bug(s)?

[Ettepet]

Today I converted my LV 2012SP1 project to LV 2013.  One thing I noticed is that my shortcuts (desktop shortcuts to the executable) had disappeared from my installers after the convertion.  Anyone else had this problem?

I have to check the installers and functionality of the software on various Windows versions, so after adding (again) the shortcut to the installers I installed the software on a Windows XP (32 bit version) pc (VMW).  I then noticed that it didn't actually install the shortcut on my desktop but rather inside a folder on my desktop (name of folder: "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop\<executable name>").  This can not be right, and isn't how it worked with previous LV versions.

I checked the definition of the shortcut in the installer with that of a previous version and it looks identical.

[altenbach]

I never place shortcuts on the desktop, because I think it is rude. The desktop is the worst place for shortcuts, because they will always be covered by some other window. I despise any software that dares to place something on the desktop.  😉

Well, I don't know if anything has changed, but it seems odd that you get the all users\desktop folder on your desktop. Typically that is the place to put icons that should show up on the desktop of all users. Sorry. I have no longer access to windows XP to test.

Maybe somebody can investigate....I cannot test this.

[Ettepet]

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@altenbach wrote:

I never place shortcuts on the desktop, because I think it is rude. The desktop is the worst place for shortcuts, because they will always be covered by some other window. I despise any software that dares to place something on the desktop.  😉

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[off-topic]
I have an aversion to windows explorer and the usage of the full screen option with every program and window and then alt-tabbing, especially on large screens.  I see people still doing this 20 years on from windows 3.1 and 640x480.

I have about 15 shortcuts on my screen (most are paths to folders) and 1 or 2 files.  I generally look at my folders through the "detailed view" option, ordered by date, every window its own location and size.  Sadly, from Windows Vista on Microsoft clearly favours the alt-tabbers and "Icon view"... [/off-topic]

I think employees at my company only get about 3 icons "forced" upon their screen, work related, so that's not so bad. 🙂

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Well, I don't know if anything has changed, but it seems odd that you get the all users\desktop folder on your desktop. Typically that is the place to put icons that should show up on the desktop of all users. Sorry. I have no longer access to windows XP to test.

Maybe somebody can investigate....I cannot test this.

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Fortunately most people here are on Windows 7 (64bit) and both 'bugs' I encountered are rather small.  The loss of short-cuts from a project after convertion might prove the most troublesome.

[Ettepet]

Today I found that the LV 2013 installer does the same thing (=short-cut ending up in a sub-folder instead of directly on my desktop) in Windows 8, so it probably will be a more general bug.

My executable is still being generated in the flat (LV 8.6) format, so I thought: maybe these problems have to do with this dated setting.  I modified my code to the newer (better?) format but now I am running into problems with menu's:

In LV 2013 I now have the following phenomena, that "menu's that are in the same folder level as the connected vi" function normally but if the vi is in a different folder level (a sub-folder for instance) then a default menu is used.  This happens in the executable, during the editing stage everything seems ok.  If I switch back to the flat (LV 8.6) format then everyting works fine again.  It doesn't matter if I re-connect the menu to the vi or change it (while connected to the vi) and press save.

I also still get the occasional unexplainable error while building an executable, like I had in LV 2010, LV 2011 and LV 2012.  Looking at the LabVIEW 2013 Known Issues and all the issues I encountered the past few years I cannot help but conclude that there are still many, many unresolved bugs in Labview.

[Ettepet]

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@Ettepet wrote:

Today I found that the LV 2013 installer does the same thing (=short-cut ending up in a sub-folder instead of directly on my desktop) in Windows 8, so it probably will be a more general bug.

After more experimentation with the Labview installer and the resulting code in LV 2013 I noticed there is a "Subdirectory" field that I had overlooked in the Installer (Category = Shortcuts).  You would expect this field to be empty when creating shorcuts on the screen, however when creating a shortcut the initial "Directory" points to "[Program Menu]" which for most purposes requires a Subdirectory.  Switching to "[All Users Desktop]" leaves the Subdirectory field filled.

This leaves the matter of disappearing shortcuts from the build properties of the Installer after convertion to LV 2013, and the strange requirement of Run-Time menu's having to be on the same folder level as connected vi's if you switch off "Use Labview 8.x file layout" in the Advanced ".exe" build properties.

[ThiCop]

Hello Ettepet,

This seems to be an interesting issue.

Can you provide me with a "test project" for reproducing the issue at the office here?

I'm asking just to make sure I have exactly the same starting point as you.