shim exe with icon of the exe

[ghiboz]

hi!
it's possible in the exe created into C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin that points to the latest update to have the icon of the correct exe and not all the same?

thanks

[TomOne]

👍 for this. I also would find it much nicer if the original exe icon would be used.

That is also the reason why there exist different icons for different programs, isn’t it? 😃

[gep13]

For me, the advantage of the shim's is running the application's from the command line, so icons don't really matter for me. Personal preference I guess.

[codearoo]

I'm curious... why the "shim" versus mklink?

[TomOne]

I'm curious... why the "shim" versus mklink?

Because MS failed to correctly implement symlinks. To create symlinks on Windows requires administrator rights and attempting to run them from GUI (Explorer) fails with an error. In addition, they don’t resolve paths correctly (e.g. paths to DLLs are not resolved correctly).

[TomOne]

For me, the advantage of the shim's is running the application's from the command line, so icons don't really matter for me. Personal preference I guess.

I see shimgen as workaround for a broken symlink support in Windows. On Windows and on other operating systems, symlinks always inherit the icon of their target. IMHO that makes sense, doesn’t it?

[gep13]

I see shimgen as workaround for a broken symlink support in Windows. On Windows and on other operating systems, symlinks always inherit the icon of their target. IMHO that makes sense, doesn’t it?

I don't disagree with you on that point. However, for me, the shims that end up in the Chocolatey\bin folder are things like dupfinder.exe, gitversion.exe, inspectcode.exe and various other things. None of these tools have a GUI, they all run from the command line. As a result, I typically never have a need to look in the Chocolatey\bin folder.

Other applications that are installed through Chocolatey almost always have Start Menu, or desktop links, so again, I don't need to go to the Chocolatey\bin folder. It is just as simple for me to hit the Windows key, type the first few character of the application name, and then hit enter.

Yes, it's personal preference.

[codearoo]

I see. How does one create their own shims? We might have a use. Are they
for directories too? Are MS directory junctions in better condition? I only
used them slightly. of course I've used Linux symbolic and hard links for
years.
On Sep 25, 2014 2:27 PM, "TomOne" notifications@github.com wrote:

I'm curious... why the "shim" versus mklink?

Because MS failed to correctly implement symlinks. To create symlinks on
Windows requires administrator rights and attempting to run them from GUI
(Explorer) fails with an error. In addition, they don’t resolve paths
correctly (e.g. paths to DLLs are not resolved correctly).

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#579 (comment)
.

[TomOne]

I see. How does one create their own shims? We might have a use.

ShimGen is non-free proprietary software: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chocolatey/chocolatey/master/src/tools/shimgen.license.txt

I guess the Chocolatey devs won’t tell how it exactly works, otherwise they would have open-sourced it. 😃

[codearoo]

Wha????!! disappointing.

I can think of many many issues of Windows and Windows apps that could have
been easily resolved if Windows did have correctly working sym links.
On Sep 26, 2014 7:06 AM, "TomOne" notifications@github.com wrote:

I see. How does one create their own shims? We might have a use.

ShimGen is non-free proprietary software:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chocolatey/chocolatey/master/src/tools/shimgen.license.txt

I guess the Chocolatey devs won’t tell how it exactly works, otherwise
they would have open-sourced it. [image: 😃]

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#579 (comment)
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[ferventcoder]

ShimGen is non-free proprietary software: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chocolatey/chocolatey/master/src/tools/shimgen.license.txt

It's possible that it could later be offered as a standalone product. I do doubt that it will be a free product though. At the current time we are wanting to see more folks making packages to take advantage of it.

[ghost]

👍

[MetaMemoryT]

👍 for Atom

[ferventcoder]

If you want to play with this, there is a prerelease https://chocolatey.org/packages/chocolatey/0.9.8.29-alpha1

[ferventcoder]

So it works if it finds the path. However the working directory of shimgen doesn't find it appropriately :/

[kbauer]

Regarding shims vs mklink: Back when I still used Windows XP I used Windows's *.LNK files as shims for programs I wanted to start from the commandline.

The link contents just have to be

"EXECUTABLEPATH" %*

Instead of just "EXECUTABLEPATH", with execution path set appropriately. Then you need to add .LNK to the PATHEXT variable.

In order to allow calling the program as COMMAND.exe, adding a second link COMMAND.exe.lnk might do the trick.

One advantage of LNK files would be that it inherits the executable's icon. I am not aware of disadvantages. Sadly I'm also not aware of how to generate .LNK files.