All,
I have managed to deploy all my applications (Standalone) on the client system which are written in .net 1.1 version by adding a small stub application written in 2.0. Everything is working fine. Now I have a very peculiar requirement from our clients and I don't know how I can achieve this. Can anyone please help me out with this.

I have many individual applications deployed separately on the client system. And I also have a Main application which will call some of this individual applications via web requests. Now each of these application creates a shortcut in the Start Menu. Our clients want me to install all the applications but not create a shortcut for them in the Start Menu. They want to see only the Main application in the Start Program. And all other applications should be called transparently via the Main application. Can anybody suggest any ideas of how I can Install a ClickOnce application without creating the shortcut in the Start Menu.

Thanks,
Pradeep

Hiï¼?/p>

ClickOnce Shortcuts Are Different

ClickOnce creates a shortcut in a user’s Start menu Programs when a user installs a ClickOnce application, like DotNetLauncher. This shortcut is only created when the developer that published the ClickOnce application indicated that the ClickOnce application should be available offline. The user uses this shortcut to launch the ClickOnce application when they are not connected to the publish location.

If you closely examine the created shortcut you’ll see that it is quite different from a regular Windows shortcut. That’s because it’s not a .lnk file. It is actually something known as an Application Reference and it has an extension of .appref-ms. These Application References are sometimes referred to as ClickOnce shortcuts.

You’ll find the default installation location for a ClickOnce shortcut in the user’s Start menu Program list under

PublisherName>ProductName.AppRef-MS

• PublisherName is the folder that is created in the user’s programs list.
• ProductName.AppRef-MS is the filename of the ClickOnce shortcut that is created.

Both PublisherName and ProductName are based on what was entered in the textboxes of the same names provided in the Publish Options dialog box. You can access the Publish Options dialog box from the Publish page of the Project Properties screen in Visual Studio 2005. I’ll discuss the Publish Options dialog box in more detail later in this article.

http://www.code-magazine.com/article.aspx?quickid=0703072&page=3

WIth Regards

Thanks Gavin,
I got more insight on how ClickOnce application shortcuts are referenced.
But is there any way of avoiding these shortcuts to be created on the user desktop? Or is it at the mercy of ClickOnce's bootstrapper to create them.
Is there any way of programmatically writing a post-install script to remove the shortcut from the user's desktop?
If there is one can you give me some guidelines on to achieve this?


Thanks,
Pradeep

Hi

It is also possible to prevent the application from being added to the Start menu and Add/Remove Programs group, in effect making it behave like a Web application. For more information, see Choosing a ClickOnce Deployment Strategy.

With Regards

Hi Gavin,
I understand if this is the case if my application is Online only application. But it is currently in off line mode and that is my requirement. So with this limitation, is it still possible for me to get rid of the shortcut created on the Start Menu.
Thanks for the response and your time.

Pradeep.