Thread: add your program to start menu ?

  1. #1
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    add your program to start menu ?

    i am looking for the api to add your program to the windows start menu , so you can select it from there and launch it ? , thanks

  2. #2
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    I don't know the procedures for that, but most simply use a program installer (such as inno setup, I think that's the name (free)) which handles that for you. There are probably some other good ones out there as well, but can't think of any other names at the moment.

  3. #3
    Hurry Slowly vart's Avatar
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    create short cut and copy it to the appropriate folder
    All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection,
    except for the problem of too many layers of indirection.
    – David J. Wheeler

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Anddos View Post
    i am looking for the api to add your program to the windows start menu , so you can select it from there and launch it ? , thanks
    Code:
    // Adds program to startup folder
    #include <windows.h>
    #include <objbase.h>
    #include <shlobj.h>
    #include <objidl.h>
    #include <shlwapi.h>
    #include <stdio.h>
    
    #pragma comment(lib,"uuid.lib")
    #pragma comment(lib,"ole32.lib")
    #pragma comment(lib,"shell32.lib")
    #pragma comment(lib,"user32.lib")
    
    HRESULT CreateMyStartupShortcut (
    	LPCTSTR lpCommandLine,
    	LPCTSTR lpArguments,
    	WORD wHotKey,
    	LPCTSTR lpIconLocation,
    	int iIconIndex,
    	int iShow,
    	LPCTSTR lpWorkingDirectory,
    	LPCTSTR lpDescription,
    	LPCTSTR lpLinkName )
    {
    	HRESULT hres;
    	IShellLink *psl;
    	BOOL bUninitializeCom = FALSE;
    
    	if( (lpCommandLine == NULL) || (lpLinkName == NULL))
    		return E_INVALIDARG;
    	if ( SUCCEEDED(CoInitialize(NULL)))
    		bUninitializeCom = TRUE;
    	hres = CoCreateInstance( &CLSID_ShellLink, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, &IID_IShellLink, (void **) &psl);
    	if( SUCCEEDED(hres) )
    	{
    		IPersistFile *ppf;
    		psl->lpVtbl->SetPath( psl, lpCommandLine );
    		if( lpDescription != NULL )
    			psl->lpVtbl->SetDescription( psl, lpDescription );
    		if( lpArguments != NULL )
    			psl->lpVtbl->SetArguments( psl, lpArguments );
    		if( wHotKey != 0 )
    			psl->lpVtbl->SetHotkey( psl, wHotKey );
    		if( lpIconLocation != NULL )
    			psl->lpVtbl->SetIconLocation( psl, lpIconLocation, iIconIndex);
    		if( iShow != -1 )
    			psl->lpVtbl->SetShowCmd( psl, iShow );
    		if( lpWorkingDirectory != NULL )
    			psl->lpVtbl->SetWorkingDirectory( psl, lpWorkingDirectory );
    		hres = psl->lpVtbl->QueryInterface( psl, &IID_IPersistFile, (void **) &ppf );
    		if( SUCCEEDED(hres))
    		{
    #ifndef UNICODE
    			WCHAR wsz[MAX_PATH];
    			MultiByteToWideChar( CP_ACP, 0, lpLinkName, -1, wsz, MAX_PATH);
    #else
    			LPCWSTR wsz = lpLinkName;
    #endif
    			hres = ppf->lpVtbl->Save( ppf, wsz, TRUE );
    			ppf->lpVtbl->Release(ppf);
    		}
    		psl->lpVtbl->Release(psl);
    	}
    	if (bUninitializeCom)
    		CoUninitialize();
    	return hres;
    }
    
    BOOL GetFolderPath(LPTSTR szFolder, int csidlFolder)
    {
    	LPITEMIDLIST pidl = NULL;
    	BOOL         bRet = FALSE;
    
    	if(SUCCEEDED(SHGetSpecialFolderLocation(NULL, csidlFolder, &pidl)))
    	{
    		if(SHGetPathFromIDList(pidl, szFolder))
    			bRet = TRUE;
    		CoTaskMemFree(pidl);
    	}
    	return bRet;
    }
    
    BOOL AddMeAsAStartupShortcut(LPCTSTR szLinkTitle, LPCTSTR szDescription,
    	LPCTSTR szArguments, int IconResourceID)
    {
    	TCHAR szLinkName[MAX_PATH + MAX_PATH + 10];
    	TCHAR szPathToSelf[MAX_PATH];
    
    	if (!GetModuleFileName(NULL, szPathToSelf, MAX_PATH))
    		return FALSE;
    	if (FAILED(GetFolderPath(szLinkName, CSIDL_STARTUP)))
    		return FALSE;
    	lstrcat(szLinkName, TEXT("\\"));
    	lstrcat(szLinkName, szLinkTitle);
    	lstrcat(szLinkName, TEXT(".lnk"));
    	return SUCCEEDED(CreateMyStartupShortcut(szPathToSelf, szArguments, 0,
    		IconResourceID != -1 ? szPathToSelf : NULL,
    		IconResourceID, -1, NULL, szDescription, szLinkName));
    }
    
    int main(void)
    {
    	if (!AddMeAsAStartupShortcut(TEXT("My Demo Program"), TEXT("DemoIt"), NULL, -1))
    		MessageBox(NULL, TEXT("AddMeAsAStartupShortcut Failed to install!!!"), NULL, 0);
    	else
    		MessageBox(NULL, TEXT("AddMeAsAStartupShortcut installed successfully!!!"), NULL, 0);
    	return 0;
    }

  5. #5
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    All the code with IShellLink is in MSDN.
    Just copy-paste...

  6. #6
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    i am wondering why you are using HRESULT , i am not using directx
    but thanks alot for the example , just what i needed

  7. #7
    C++まいる!Cをこわせ!
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    Because it returns a HRESULT.
    It's COM and COM always returns HRESULT.
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

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