Windows 8 shortcuts mess

[idh]

Hi!

My NSIS installer creates many shortcuts but only .exe ones appear in Start screen in Metro UI of Windows 8. But my app is a components library, and these .exes are samples, they don't play the main role. At the same time, shortcuts to .chm of documentation (the most important file) don't appear at all. Is there a way to control which shortcuts appear and which don't? Ideally, I would have a single shortcut to the folder where all other shortcuts reside. I guess this is possible with "Immersive Application Shortcuts" folder but at the time being NSIS does not seem to provide any tools to support this folder.

Also, I would like to use this approach only on Windows 8 (this means the installer must be able to change its behavior depending on OS version). However, http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Windows_Version_Detection page does not have anything about Windows 8 yet.

Would be glad for any help!

[kalverson]

The windows version should not be read directly from the windows registry. There is a MS certification test case
TC1.2.1 : Does the test application perform Windows version checking correctly?
This test case uses a program to verify that your installer does not read the windows registry for window version values.

[Anders]

Use WinVer.nsh, update your local copy with http://nsis.svn.sourceforge.net/view...49&view=markup if required...

Note: The guidelines are (and have been for 10+ years) to only install a shortcut to your main app, not all your useless junk like license text and uninstaller. If this does not fit your design you might want make some sort of launcher that lists your samples etc. If the .chm is the most important part, create a mini app that just starts the .chm (MS has logic to filter out *Readme*, *Uninstaller*, *.chm and *.txt etc for new program highlighting etc)

See also:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2005/11/24/496690.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2007/06/15/3301004.aspx

http://web.archive.org/web/20070310202349/http://support.microsoft.com/kb/282066

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms954377.aspx#Do not place shortcuts to documents, help or uninstall in the Start menu

[idh]

Thanks!