SMSINST: Adding Shortcuts to Start Menu When Using System Policies (198778)

SUMMARY

The purpose of this article is to provide an example of how the "Create Shortcut" script item can be used to add a link for a Control Panel applet (in this case, the Advertised Program Wizard) to the Start menu. This may be useful in environments where the user does not have direct access to the Control Panel as a result of a system policy.

The following items explain the steps taken by the Installer script. A script is provided at the end of this article for example purposes only.

Read the current win32 system directory into the installer variable SYS. You need this because your link is going to a CPL file contained in this directory, which may be a different path on different machines, which execute this script.
Read the Common Start menu value from the registry to get the path to the All Users Start menu (again this may vary from workstation to workstation). This is where you are going to place the actual .lnk file so that all users receive the shortcut. Place the value in the DESTPATH variable.
Append the name of the .lnk file to the DESTPATH variable to form a complete destination path for the Create Shortcut script item.
In the Create Shortcut script item, use the values obtained above to fill in the script item properties. Specify the icon that will be used for the shortcut. In this case, the Advertised Programs icon that you see in the Control Panel is from %WIN%\MS\SMS\clicomp\SWDist32\00000409\CPLRes.dll, and it happens to be the first icon (offset 0) in this case.

MORE INFORMATION

Example of Completed Script

To see this script in Systems Management Server Installer, cut and paste it into a text editor such as Notepad, and save it as an .ipf file. You may then open that file with Installer.

NOTE: This script is provided for example purposes only. Some modification may be required for correct execution in your environment.

Document Type: IPF
item: Global
  Version=6.0
  Title English=Advertised Programs Link
  Flags=00000100
  Languages=0 0 65 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
  LanguagesList=English
  Default Language=2
  Japanese Font Name=MS Gothic
  Japanese Font Size=10
  Start Gradient=0 0 255
  End Gradient=0 0 0<BR/>
  Windows Flags=00010000000000000010110000011000
  Message Font=MS Sans Serif
  Font Size=8
  Disk Filename=SETUP
  Patch Flags=0000000000000001
  Patch Threshold=85
  Patch Memory=4000
  FTP Cluster Size=20
end
item: Win32 System Directory
  Variable=SYS
end
item: Get Registry Key Value
  Variable=DESTPATH
  Key=Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders
  Value Name=Common Start Menu
  Flags=00000100
end
item: Set Variable
  Variable=DESTPATH
  Value=\Advertised Programs.lnk
  Flags=00000001
end
item: Create Shortcut
  Source English=%SYS%\SMSCPL32.CPL
  Destination English=%DESTPATH%
  Working Directory English=%SYS%
  Icon Number English=0
  Icon Pathname English=%WIN%\MS\SMS\clicomp\SWDist32\00000409\CPLRes.DLL
  Description English=Advertised Programs
  Key Type English=1536
  Flags=00000001
end