Re: Windows binary installer ignores user options for Start menu shortcuts

[Corwin Brust]

Hastily top-posting to say: please don't Reply All ("wide reply") to
my last.  I intended to omit the devel list when sending that but left
it on by mistake.  to make it easy to avoid creating useless
bug-reports as a result of my error:

Please reply to this message instead of that one.

Sorry for the confusion.

BTW, in case anyone needs it, the address for the new bug opened
regarding Francis' finding is 75013@debbugs.gnu.org

On Sat, Dec 21, 2024 at 1:46 PM Corwin Brust <corwin@bru.st> wrote:
>
> Thanks much for looking into issues/fixes with the binary installer
> for Windows, Francis!  "Promoting" your comments to a bug report here,
> as I think you've uncovered an undocumented (and fixable + worth
> fixing) thing.
>
> On Sat, Dec 21, 2024 at 12:29 PM Francis Wright <f.j.wright@live.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Corwin
> >
> > Thanks for working on this. The "greedy uninstaller" was a bit of a pain. I 
> > tried your installer []
> > and the associated uninstaller seems to work correctly, i.e. it only 
> > uninstalls emacs-30.0.93, which is great. I didn't notice any of the other 
> > issues you listed.
> >
>
> Yay!
>
> > However, I did notice a couple of problems. Firstly, Windows pops up a 
> > warning from Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, which is not a new problem and 
> > is easy to work around.
>
> This I think I am not currently able to do much about, alas.
>
> > Secondly, the installer did not install a shortcut folder. On the Choose 
> > Start Menu Folder dialogue, Emacs-30.0.93 was pre-selected, and I ensured 
> > that Do not create shortcuts was not selected. The only button available 
> > was the Close button, which I clicked. A shortcut for Emacs itself was 
> > installed but not the shortcut to the folder containing Emacs and the 
> > uninstaller. (I can add the folder shortcut by hand.)
> >
>
> Thanks for reporting this issue.  I confirmed it exists also with the
> 29.4 released binary installer.  When I select "show details" I can
> see at the end of the unpacking ("installation") processing step it
> creates start-menu short-cuts; however, the screen where we choose
> whether or not we want to install short-cuts isn't shown until after
> the unpacking step -which I now see does short-cut creation, but
> shouldn't- is completed.  There is some code in the nsi script which
> might be doing the write thing in the wrong place, at first glance.
> In any case, with the present (for some time) installer we get a
> "hard-coded" incorrect value for a start menu shortcut that is always
> created irrespective of relevant choices offered to the user by said
> installer.  Not great.
>
> I'll look into fixing this for the 30.1 installer, also, replying back
> in here if/when I have an "_3" that seems to warrant others' testing
> effort.
>
> Since this "short-cut page ignored" issue doesn't seem already to have
> been captured in the bug tracker I have directed this reply such as to
> create a new bug-report.  I'll try to arrange to get additional
> relevant comments I/we make back on devel show up in the new bug
> report (I don't have the number yet, as I write this), but: feel free
> to address replies back to original devel thread (or otherwise to this
> new bug thread) as you think best.
>
> > Best wishes,
> > Francis
> >
>
> Gratefully,
> Corwin