Remove desktop shortcut Visual Studio Installer Projects

Question

I use Visual Studio Installer Projects with Visual Studio 2019 to build installers with a Desktop shortcut, but there is no way to remove that shortcut.

I have never seen an App capable of this, is there an option or did I do something wrong? I just want users to be able to delete the shortcut.

Answer 1

I had this exact problem and tried to comment here, but my post was deleted because it was deemed "not an answer". I'll try again...

The Desktop Shortcut created by the installer has the OWNER property set to SYSTEM, and if you change the owner to your username, then it can be deleted.

I reported the problem to Microsoft but they could not replicate the problem - see https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=VisualStudioClient.MicrosoftVisualStudio2017InstallerProjects&ssr=false#qna

I eventually gave up and used Inno Setup instead.