No start menu icons installed in win10

[zhuangh7]

I'm new user for wsltty, And this the first time I install wsltty 3.0.0. When installer say installed, but there only 4 files named "add to context menu", "add default to context menu", "configure WSL shortcuts" and "remove from context". And I find the only way I can start wsltty is open "add to context menu", and go to desktop and right click then finally choose start wsltty. But this is too complex and waste of time. How can I add a shortcut to my start menu or tast menu or anyway desktop? I think this should be created automaticly by the installer but it did not.

[zhuangh7]

fine, I run "configure WSL shortcuts" in powershell and then it creat everything I need. Congratulations. But I believe it should run when installer installing or give me a feedback that something error instead of just installed.

[mintty]

User preferences differ. Some users do not want shortcuts for all WSL distributions on their desktops. Many users particularly object against Explorer context menu entries installed automatically. So these are optional.
The installer installs shortcuts for all distributions that you have at the time of installing wsltty in your start menu. If you install another distro later, you may want to have a shortcut also. This is another use case for running these configuration scripts explicitly.
I will check how description can be improved to guide through these steps. Suggestions welcome.

[zhuangh7]

thanks

[mintty]

Reading again, apart from context menu entries, there should have been at least one desktop shortcut for the default WSL distribution, plus Start menu shorcuts for all distributions that you had deployed at the time of installing wsltty. Was that not the case?

[zhuangh7]

Thanks for your attentaion. But actually, the installer didn't create even one shortcut in my desktop. So at that moment I was confused.

[zhuangh7]

Im sure I already have an default WSL because after I install wsltty, I can open a wsltty window through right click on desktop and choose "start wsltty". Although, there is no any short on my desktop or start menu.

[mintty]

It could be that your %USERPROFILE% is configured so that its Desktop is not a subfolder but a Windows shortcut (e.g. pointing to another disk). That might be raising problems, at least that's what I see on one system.
Uploading a patch for config-distros.sh.

[zhuangh7]

OK, this may help the latecomer, thx :>

[SimonPilkington]

Your current approach is also not foolproof. Many user profile folders can be moved individually to arbitrary locations. (Including roaming AppData. See here.) If this is the case, your shortcut will end up in an unused folder.

Consider using something like this instead.

[mintty]

The environment variables (e.g. %APPDATA%) should always point to the proper place, even if relocated.
Which one does not work for you?

[SimonPilkington]

My AppData is not relocated, but my Desktop is on a different disk, so there is no way to reach it via the %APPDATA% variable.

[mintty]

I had recently replaced "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop" (which turned out not to work in some situations) by "%APPDATA%\..\Desktop\", now this doesn't seem to work in other situations. Quite bothersome...
How about %Desktop%, actually, is that set properly for you?

[SimonPilkington]

%Desktop% is not a system variable unfortunately. The SO answer I linked above loads it from the registry.

[mintty]

I think I saw %Desktop% on every Windows system so far, without extra configuration. Is it set properly on your system?

[mintty]

Also, I see FOLDERID_Desktop in the same include file where FOLDERID_LocalAppData etc are defined.

[SimonPilkington]

I have access to three different Windows systems at the moment and none of them have %Desktop%. The FOLDERID_* variables are only defined in KnownFolders.h for use in code and are unrelated to environment variables. Only %AppData% and %LocalAppData% exist as environment variables to my knowledge.

[emberquill]

I don't have %DESKTOP% set on my system either (running Windows 10 1809 if that matters). I know you can query the registry for it. It's the Desktop value in:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

[mintty]

Changed config script.

[mintty]

Released 3.0.1.