microsoft / microsoft/winget-cli
Add start menu entries for portable applications
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- Dominant language
- C++
- Stars
- 26.4k
- Forks
- 1.8k
- Avg merge
- 1d 11h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 15
Description
Description of the new feature / enhancement
As discussed in this thread, portable applications now have a specification which enables standalone executables to be installed and added to the PATH. However, it would also be nice if there was an option to allow start menu shortcuts to be created for these applications.
Proposed technical implementation details
The implementation would be pretty similar to how portable applications are added to the PATH, except instead of a symlink a shortcut will be created with a title as specified by the manifest, and placed at %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs for machine installations or %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs for user installations. It might be a good idea in order to avoid conflicts to place shortcuts in a subfolder such as ..\WinGet.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start with the portable standalone applications specification, especially its Install section describing PATH integration. Trace how the manifest title and machine versus user installation scope are handled, then determine where Start Menu entries would fit. Done means portable applications can optionally receive correctly titled shortcuts in the appropriate Start Menu location without conflicts.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- cpp
- Domain
- cli, operating-systems
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 45/100