CreateShortcut broken? (Relative path to .LNK)

I've noticed that my installers no longer appear to be creating shortcuts - this is on Windows 10, 64-bit. Here's the log entry:

Output folder: C:\Users\xxx\Documents\Foo
Output folder: C:\Users\xxxx\AppData\Local\Bar\Foo\Cache
Output folder: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Bar
C:\Program Files\foo\bar\myApp.EXE
File Exists
Error creating shortcut: foo.lnk
Output folder: C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
Error creating shortcut: foo.lnk
Output folder: C:\Users\xxx\Desktop
Error creating shortcut: foo.lnk
Output folder: C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\bar
Error creating shortcut: foo2.lnk
Output folder: C:\Users\xxx\Desktop
Error creating shortcut: foo2.lnk

That "File Exists" message validates that the executable I'm trying to create a shortcut to exists, yet I get a cryptic error. Running as Admin (although that shouldn't make a difference when I'm trying to write to my own desktop).

How can i determine what error is being triggered?

Here's a sample NSI:

; General Compiler Flags

SetCompress		auto

SetCompressor		/SOLID /FINAL zlib

CRCCheck		force

FileBufSize		4

XPStyle			on

RequestExecutionLevel	admin

ManifestSupportedOS	Win10

ManifestDPIAware	true

OutFile			createShortcut.exe



; Display options

WindowIcon		off

SetFont 		"Tahoma" 8

ShowInstDetails		show



; 64-bit support

var			IS64BIT



Section			CreateShortcut CSCUT



MessageBox MB_OK	"64bit = $IS64BIT"



StrCpy 			$0 "$PROGRAMFILES64\Internet Explorer\iexplore.EXE"

IfFileExists		$0 0 +2

 IntOp $1 0 + 1



MessageBox MB_OK	"$0 exists = $1"



SetOutPath		$DESKTOP

CreateShortcut		test.lnk $0

CreateShortcut		test2.lnk "$WINDIR\explorer.exe" "" "$WINDIR\explorer.exe" 0

CreateShortcut		test3.lnk "$PROGRAMFILES32\nsis\nsis.chm" ""

CreateShortcut		test4.lnk $EXEPATH



SectionEnd



Function .onInit



; Check for 64-bit Operating System

System::Call		"kernel32::GetCurrentProcess() i .s"

System::Call		"kernel32::IsWow64Process(i s, *i .r0)"

IntCmp			$0 0 +2

 IntOp			$IS64BIT 1 & 1



; Enable registry fix

SectionGetFlags		${CSCUT} $0

IntOp			$0 $0 | 1

SectionSetFlags		${CSCUT} $0



FunctionEnd

All shortcuts fail on Windows 10!

Your calls to CreateShortcut do not specify a full path!

Also, with "RequestExecutionLevel Admin" you really should use "SetShellVarContext All" to avoid writing to the wrong Start Menu folder.

The CreateShortcut code has not changed in a while.

That worked, but why should they specify a full path? Do they not assume $OUTDIR if one is not provided? My reading of the Documentation "$OUTDIR is used as the working directory" implies that, but I may have misunderstood.

Out of curiosity, is this Windows-specific? While you say the code hasn't change in a while, this is code of mine that hasn't changed in around a decade and worked on Windows 7.

$OUTDIR is the working directory of the thing invoked by the shortcut, it is a property inside the .LNK shortcut file. I will update the documentation to clarify this.

NSIS just uses the IShellLink interface in Windows to create shortcuts. I believe the implementation in Windows 8+ is stricter when it comes to the path of the .LNK (iPersistFile::Save https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/win...able-manifest#) if the application declares support for Windows 8 in its manifest.

One more thing I noticed, why are you using "ManifestSupportedOS Win10"? You should leave that property alone unless you understand what it does and actually want compatibility stuff applied on Windows 7, 8 and 8.1.