Microsoft KB Archive/306276

= No shortcut appears on desktop after application assigned through GPO =

Article ID: 306276

Article Last Modified on 3/15/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows Installer 1.1
 * Microsoft Windows Installer 1.2
 * Microsoft Windows Installer 2.0

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This article was previously published under Q306276



SYMPTOMS
When you use Group Policy Object (GPO) to assign an application to users, the shortcut for the application does not appear on the user's desktop.



CAUSE
This problem occurs because the shortcuts in the Shortcut table of the .msi package are not Windows Installer advertised shortcuts. Instead, they are regular .lnk files. These files will be created when the application is installed locally.



RESOLUTION
Change the shortcuts in the Shortcut table of the .msi file to make the shortcuts advertised. For an advertised shortcut, the Target column must be an external key (foreign key) to the first column of the Feature table. In your authoring tool, verify that the target of the shortcut is pointing to a feature, not a file.



Steps to reproduce the problem

 * 1) Create an .msi package or choose an existing .msi file.
 * 2) Create a nonadvertised shortcut (a regular .lnk file that points to a file instead of a feature) for the .msi package.
 * 3) Save the .msi package and use GPO to assign the package to a group of users.

When a user from that group logs on to the computer, no shortcuts appear on the user's desktop.

