microsoft / microsoft/winget-cli
Add a flag to install/upgrade packages witth a custom --location for shortcuts
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- Dominant language
- C++
- Stars
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- Avg merge
- 1d 11h
- Merged PRs (30d)
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Description
Relevant area(s)
WinGet CLI
Description of the new feature / enhancement
Winget has a nice --location flag that allows you to (partially) prevents the disorganized mess of installed apps in your Program Files
But the shortcuts in the Start Menu is still the same disorganized mess. And if you ever do any manual changes, they get reset since on each update the shortcuts are recreated.
Thus I'd like winget to add an option to control where the shortcuts are created or move them to the proper place after the installer creates them
Proposed technical implementation details
Add a --location-shortcut flag to create the shortcuts at that location. If this is some unsupported installer functionality, maybe then just move the installer-created shortcuts to the user-defined position?
P.S. (there is a feature request https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli/issues/1045, but that one only deals with desktop shortcuts and at least when it comes to those some winget clients like Uniget already offer this functionality to cleanup. This request is for Start menu shortctus)
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 by tracing WinGet CLI's install and upgrade command handling and how installer-created Start menu shortcuts are currently managed. Resolve whether --location-shortcut can be supported across installer types or requires moving created shortcuts; done means the flag works for both install and upgrade without shortcuts being reset unexpectedly.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- cpp
- Domain
- cli, operating-systems
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 38/100