Order of icons in the start menu

Does NSIS allow you to specify the order of icon in the start menu folder it creates ?

No, but Wizou wrote a plug-in to set the order of shortcuts in start menu. 🙂
--> http://nsis.sourceforge.net/NsisStartMenu_plug-in

Is this what you need?

PaR

Thanks PaR, I will give it a try, although I don't think it will place all my 27 icons in a chosen order.

if you call nsisStartMenu after creating each of the 27 icons in the menu, you can ensure a completely specific order

Thanks Wizou, it works a treat on the Start Menu folder.
There is a curious 'memory' effect though when it comes to the desktop shortcut to the start menu folder. Even when I delete both before running the installation, the new desktop icon always displays the order present in the previously deleted one.

Originally Posted by colinwray View Post

Thanks Wizou, it works a treat on the Start Menu folder.
There is a curious 'memory' effect though when it comes to the desktop shortcut to the start menu folder. Even when I delete both before running the installation, the new desktop icon always displays the order present in the previously deleted one.

You can circumvent this by deleting the appropriate regkey for that folder. Do a search for the folder's name in the registry and you'll find it.

I deleted the regkey for the folder, but that removed all the work done by the nsisStartMenu calls. It has not changed the order remembered by the desktop shortcut to this folder.

Originally Posted by colinwray View Post

I deleted the regkey for the folder, but that removed all the work done by the nsisStartMenu calls. It has not changed the order remembered by the desktop shortcut to this folder.

Err... I'm confused. What exactly are you trying to accomplish?

There are a large number of utility programs in my software package. I create a start menu folder with icons to run each of these programs, and with Wizou's excellent "nsisStartMenu" plugin, I place these in my preferred order (as opposed to the default alphabetical order).

I also place a shortcut to this start menu folder on the user's desktop, but the order of the icons seen when this shortcut is opened is different to that seen in the (now correct) start menu folder. Despite deleting both this shortcut and the actual start menu folder at the start, some (presumably Windows) magic feature remembers the icon order from its previous setting.

I cannot find another reference to my package in the registry, and as I said, your suggested removal of the only key simply returns the start menu folder to alpha order, and does not affect the desktop shortcut at all.

Many thanks for persevering with this thread.

I guess you're looking at an Explorer Folder View (list / icons / whatever), and you want to change the order therein?
Although I'm guessing it should be possible, it's at least contingent upon the "remember each folder's view settings" setting in Explorer for that to work. Guess what feature got removed in Windows 7?
( edit: though I'd have to check the win7 machine to see if that affects icon order specifically )

Originally Posted by Animaether View Post

I guess you're looking at an Explorer Folder View (list / icons / whatever), and you want to change the order therein?

I've spent at least 10 minutes googling for where Windows saves a folder's file order, but I was unsuccessful. :-(

Originally Posted by MSG View Post

I've spent at least 10 minutes googling for where Windows saves a folder's file order, but I was unsuccessful. :-(

yeah, can't say I've spotted it either.. maybe it plunks it down at the filesystem level somewhere; I haven't checked if the custom icon order remains in effect between sessions.

Overall, though, I suspect it would be neither simple nor all that useful. If a very specific order of programs is desired, perhaps a front-end launcher should be programmed instead (or an HTML file if lazy), as even if you do manage to set the order, it only takes the user a few clicks to change that order around again (if it doesn't happen randomly as it is).