[wix-users] Customizing Start Screen with XML

Thu Sep 29 17:27:13 PDT 2016

Keith,

Indeed, sometimes the pinned items used to vanish if you upgraded the product because the shortcut was either (1) new and unique (based on a GUID) even though it was visually the same to the user, or (2) pointed directly to the EXE, which was sometimes in a version-specific folder. Microsoft seems to have fixed this in Windows 10 Anniversary Update (v1607) because the Export-StartLayout cmdlet output contains actual file paths to the shortcuts rather than the methods it used before. If you are not on Windows 10 v1607, my suggestion would be to see if this works (I've never tried it): (1) Design your Start layout, (2) export it, and then (3) edit the XML file to use real file paths if desired.

Examples from Windows 8.1:

<!-- Based on GUID -->

<tile AppID="{1AC14E77-02E7-4E5D-B744-2EB1AE5198B7}\calc.exe" size="square150x150" FencePost="0"/>

<!-- Contains versioned folder -->
<tile AppID="{6D809377-6AF0-444B-8957-A3773F02200E}\Microsoft Office\Office15\WINWORD.EXE" size="square150x150" FencePost="0"/>

Example from Windows 10 v1607:

<!-- Points to Start menu shortcut (*.lnk) file -->

<start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="2" Row="0" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Word 2016.lnk" />

Good luck!
Jay Michaud

________________________________
From: wix-users <wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> on behalf of Douglas, Keith (STATCAN) <keith.douglas at canada.ca>
Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2016 10:15 AM
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List
Subject: Re: [wix-users] Customizing Start Screen with XML

Ok, good to know, though our users are not supposed to be customizing in that way.

Keith Douglas

Programmer Analyst, Collection Systems Division
Statistics Canada / Government of Canada
Keith.Douglas at canada.ca / Tel : 613-854-5589

Programmeur analyste, Division des systèmes de collecte
Statistique Canada / Gouvernenment du Canada
Keith.Douglas at canada.ca / Tél :613-854-5589

-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users [mailto:wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On Behalf Of David Watson
Sent: September-29-16 10:09 AM
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Subject: Re: [wix-users] Customizing Start Screen with XML

You can also use custom large images (up to 150x150 aka medium tile size) and style for a standard windows application if a user pins it to the start menu/screen by shipping a .VisualElementsManifest file along with your application (and some images).

See https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/dn393983.aspx

Dave

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-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users [mailto:wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On Behalf Of Douglas, Keith (STATCAN)
Sent: 29 September 2016 14:07
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Subject: Re: [wix-users] Customizing Start Screen with XML

Thank you, Jay.

We've seen the stuff about how to do it with GPO and may go that route. The only question this raises is: does anything happen if the target changes? If I have an initial application X whose exe has a shortcut pointing to it in the relevant way, can I change the target, or will some magic prevent it (I don't use advertised shortcuts: it seems that avoiding those would do the trick.)

Keith Douglas

Programmer Analyst, Collection Systems Division Statistics Canada / Government of Canada Keith.Douglas at canada.ca / Tel : 613-854-5589

Programmeur analyste, Division des systèmes de collecte Statistique Canada / Gouvernenment du Canada Keith.Douglas at canada.ca / Tél :613-854-5589

-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users [mailto:wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On Behalf Of Jay Michaud
Sent: September-28-16 7:23 PM
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Subject: Re: [wix-users] Customizing Start Screen with XML

There is no programmatic way to pin your program to the Start menu because Microsoft designed this to be a user preference. Please do not attempt to do this in your installer or in the code of the application itself. The good news is that it sounds like this is an internal application, so your IT administrators can control the user experience through Group Policy as you mentioned.

I've already put Windows 8 and 8.1 out of my mind, but in Windows 10, the default Start menu layout modification XML file from the default user profile is only read when a new user profile is created. Thereafter, the pinned items on the Start menu are managed in a database within %LOCALAPPDATA%, if I recall correctly. (This is not documented, and Microsoft can change how it works at any time. I found it through study.) Applications installed using Windows Installer should put their program shortcuts under "%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs" as usual. The Start menu setting "Show recently added apps" is turned on by default in Windows 10, so your program will appear at the top of the All Programs list immediately after it is installed. To force a program icon to be pinned to the Start menu, an IT administrator can apply a layout modification XML file with Group Policy, but this prevents users from making any changes of their own. Again, this is an administrative activity and not an installation activity. For information on creating and capturing a Start menu layout for use with Group Policy, please see the TechNet documentation for the Export-StartLayout PowerShell cmdlet. You may also want to look into whether there is a Group Policy that automatically pins newly installed desktop applications; it seems like I saw something about that, but I never looked into it. If that exists, it would allow your organization's administrators to pin all newly installed apps while perhaps still letting users make changes.

For a different approach, you can repackage desktop apps as Windows Store apps (APPX) with a tool from Microsoft, and when that happens, you can actually specify a tile. If you go that route, though, you either have to deploy from the Windows Store or sideload the app. I believe that FireGiant's tool, "AppX Extension for the WiX Toolset" has done the same thing for a while, even before the release of Anniversary Update.

Also, you are correct about the features of the Education edition. The Education edition of Windows 10 is identical to the Enterprise in terms of features except that in the Anniversary Update, Cortana is removed from the Education edition. (The other differences are related to licensing and which pre-existing OSes they can upgrade.)

I hope this is helpful.

Jay Michaud

-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users [mailto:wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On Behalf Of Douglas, Keith (STATCAN)
Sent: Monday, September 26, 2016 10:23 AM
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Subject: [wix-users] Customizing Start Screen with XML

A (software developer) colleague is wondering about getting custom "Start Screen" tiles for our applications. Apparently in Enterprise (and Education?) versions of Windows one can use an XML layout file and group policy to do this. Are there any gotchas with using Util:XmlConfig in all our application packages and creating a tile in the Start Screen this way? Our colleagues in Imaging have already put our required calculator and Viewers (Excel, etc.) in manually for our users, so the relevant GPO already exists.

Thanks,

Keith Douglas

Programmer Analyst, Collection Systems Division Statistics Canada / Government of Canada Keith.Douglas at canada.ca<mailto:Keith.Douglas at canada.ca> / Tel : 613-854-5589

Programmeur analyste, Division des systèmes de collecte Statistique Canada / Gouvernenment du Canada Keith.Douglas at canada.ca<mailto:Keith.Douglas at canada.ca> / Tél :613-854-5589

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