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TMEdit  The Ultimate App-V Package Editor

 

Menu: Extensions: Shortcuts

App-V categorizes aspects of an applications installation into a set of "Extensions", each of which require special processing either during app deployment or during the virtual app runtime.

Shortcuts are an externally exposed extension that affects the external OS during App-V Publishing.  This allows an end-user, from the copy of Windows Explorer that is running their desktop and is outside of the virtual environment, to start virtual applications. While the App-V package usually contains the .lnk file  laid down by the installer, it collects the essence of the lnk file in the attributes of the virtual shortcut object. Most importantly, this essence (intentionally) looses knowledge as to whether the shortcut was laid down for all users or just the current user.  Instead, App-V will deploy this shortcut extension on the  bases of the type of publishing performed (to a named user or device, aka "global" publishing).

You can to the following for a shortcut:

  • View Issues.  Issues identified by the Analyzer for shortcuts will have the field label containing the problem item highlighted.  Yellow highlighting is a concern and red highlighting means something is definitely broken.  Gray highlighting is used when the automated fix from the Analysis & Fixes menu have been applied.  When plausible, the icon associated with the shortcut is extracted and displayed as well. (when none is displayed, the client will extract an icon from the target file, which might not be part of the package itself,  or apply a generic one)
  • Disable a Shortcut.  If you uncheck the "Enable Pub" checkbox it disables publishing of the shortcut.  We use disable instead of delete as it leaves open the possibility of re-enabling by editing the external deployment or user config xml file.
  • Modify the shortcut parameters.  Although others are exposed, we recommend sticking with these:
    • The published LNK file folder and name.
    • The Target
    •  Arguments
    • Working Directory
    • HotKey
  • Although other items are editable, we do not recommend manual modification:
    • AppID: The App-V client uses this as a common reference for linkages between this entry and other types of extension entries.  It defaults to the path/name of the target field.  But if you change the target we recommend you leave the AppID field alone, as you will likely break the package.  Our automated fixes do change the AppID, but assure you have a valid package.
    • AppUser... Fields: We are unsure why these are included in the schema.  We think these are used in Windows Universal Apps and may be a carryover from the AppV manifest being based on the AppX schema with App-v extensions added.  Leave these blank as is, we don't think the client even looks at them.
    • ShowCommand: This is a way to hide the shortcut, but allow the end user to find it (unlike disabling the publishing so that it isn't there) and re-enable it.  You probably don't want this.
  • Add a new Shortcut.  The button on the top right that looks like a + inside a circle allows you to add a new shortcut.