If you create an application, you have also create an installer project. The installer creates two files for you. An setup.exe file and a msi file.
The icons of the two files are set by the default windows icons. In Windows 7 it looks like this: If you want to change the icon of the installer, you can not do that by default in your installer project. Also, the icon of the msi file can not be changed at all. For the setup.exe file you have to do it manually for each time you create a new installer.
So every time you fix a bug and releases a new version of your application by the new created installer you have to set the icon manually. Lucky that this is not hard to do. Change the icon.
Create an installer project with the right settings that you want and build it. Now open the setup.exe file in the release folder (that is the one that you want to give to your client) in Visual Studio. You can do this as follow:. Click in Visual Studio on File – Open – File. Navigate to the exe in the release folder. Click open and then you will see an explorer in Visual Studio. Right click with your mouse on the icon folder and choose “Add Resource”.
The icon type is now selected by default. Choose on the right of the popup for “Import”. Navigate to the right icon that you want and select it.
The popup will now close and the icon folder in the explorer is expanded. Make sure that your new icon has the lowest ID. If you don’t do that, the icon will not been shown. Save the setup.exe and return in Windows Explorer to the release folder. You should now see the new icon.
Hello Atul, When 'Spring' theme is set as current project theme, then in 'Temporary' folder from 'Files and Folders' page the corresponding dialogs HTML files are added. So, in order to remove the 'Advanced Installer' watermark you should remove the following HTML file section from every HTML dialog file: AdvinstTextMark; Please keep in mind that this change will be applied for all of your Advanced Installer projects that use 'Spring' themes.
If you want to make this change only for current project, then you can copy-paste the related HTML dialog files, edit them and then in 'Temporary' folder from 'Files and Folders' view select the new source path of the related HTML files. Also, you can take a look on our articles about: -All the best, Daniel.
Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system offers a lot of compelling features, including Cortanaand a new Start menu. However, some of its default settings don't provide you with the best performance or usability. From showing file extensions to enabling system protection backups, here are seven things you need to change as soon as you get started with Windows 10. Enable System Protection / Create a Restore Point What happens if you install a bad piece of software or a defective driver and your computer starts acting strangely or you can't even boot. You'll want to revert Windows 10 to the previous system restore point, which will turn back the clock on your drivers, programs and settings to a time when the system worked perfectly. However, Windows 10 comes with system protection disabled.
If you want to protect yourself - and you should - set up restore points following the instructions below. Search for 'restore point' in the Windows search box. Launch 'Create a restore point' from the results. You should see a list of available drives. Select the system drive and click Configure.
The system drive is usually the C: drive and has the word '(System)' written after its volume name. Toggle Restore Settings to 'Turn on system protection,' set the maximum disk space usage by moving the slider and click Ok. We recommend leaving 2 or 3 percent for restore pints but you may be able to get away with the lowest (1 percent). Click Create so that you create an initial restore point right away. Name the initial restore point when prompted. Click Close when it is done. If you need to restore from one of these points, you can click the System Restore button on the System Protection tab.
If you can't boot, you can hit F8 or Shift + F8 during boot to get to the emergency menu on some computers. On other PCs, if you can at least get to the log in screen, you can hold down Shift while you select Restart. Show File Extensions and Hidden Files By default, Windows 10 hides most file extensions so, when you're browsing through your files, you can't easily see what type of file they are. Your quarterly report, for example, will appear as '3dqreport' instead of '3dqreport.pptx' while that web page you saved will display as 'homepage' rather than 'homepage.htm' or 'homepage.html.' Microsoft has been disabling extensions by default for the past several versions of its OS in a misguided effort to simplify the file system for users.
However, this approach can create more problems than it solves. For example, I recently ran into a problem when linking to a font file because I referenced it as 'myfont.ttf' when the hidden extension was in caps and the real name was 'myfont.TTF.' In an effort to protect you from yourself, Microsoft also hides certain operating system files from you by default. But what if you need to find these files or edit them to troubleshoot? And can't you trust yourself not to delete important files?
Here's how to show extensions and hidden files in Windows 10. Navigate to the control panel. You can get there by hitting Windows + X and selecting Control Panel 2. Open File Explorer Options. If you don't see the icon for it, change the control panel view (in the upper right corner) to large or small icons.
Navigate to the View tab. Toggle 'Hidden files and folders' to 'Show hidden files, folders and drives.' Uncheck 'Hide empty drives,' 'Hide extensions for known file types' and 'Hide protected operating system files.' Click Yes when warned about unhiding protected files. Disable User Account Control Windows wants to wag a finger at you every time you try to install a program or change a vital setting by popping up a dialog box and making you click Ok to continue. Why warn you if you already know what you're doing?
Good question. Disable User Account control to stop the needless, annoying dialog boxes. Search for 'user account control' in the search box. Open 'Change User Account Control settings.' Slide the slider down to 'Never notify' and click Ok. Click Yes when prompted. Disable the Lock Screen Unless you have a tablet and, even if you do, the Windows lock screen is an unnecessary decoration that makes you click or swipe one extra time every time you boot or wake your computer.
In order to unlock your computer, you have to dismiss the lock screen, but then still have to enter your password or PIN on the login screen. Why not just go straight to the login screen? Open the registry editor.
You can do that by typing regedit into the run box. Navigate to HKEYLOCALMACHINE SOFTWARE Policies Microsoft Windows. Create a registry key called Personalization if one doesn't already exist.
You can create a new key by right clicking in the right pane and selecting Key. Create a new DWORD value within the Personalization key and named it NoLockScreen. Set NoLockScreen to 1. You set the value by double clicking on NoLockScreen, entering the number and clicking Ok. Change Your Default Browser If you upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or 8, you'll notice that Microsoft Edge is now your default browser, even if Chrome or Firefox was your default before.
Edge Browser is a bit faster than Chrome or Firefox, but doesn't provide the level of extensibility that its competitors offer. If you are a Chrome or Firefox user, you'll want to change your default right away. Navigate to settings. Click System. Select Default apps from the left pane. Click the Microsoft Edge icon under the 'Web browser' header.
Select the browser you want as your new default (ex: Chrome). Delete the Windows.old Folder If you upgraded from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10, the installation program keeps a copy of your previous version of Windows around, just in case you want to roll back. However, those files, which live in a folder called Windows.old, take up 15 to 16GB of disk space.
If you plan to stay with Windows 10 (and you should), there's no reason to keep these archived files around. Unfortunately, deleting them isn't quite as simple as dragging the Windows.old folder into the recycle bin. Navigate to the control panel. You can get there by hitting Windows + X and selecting control panel. Open Administrative Tools. Launch Disk Cleanup. Click Ok, making sure that the C drive is selected.
Click Clean up System Files. Click Ok again. 7 Check all the boxes on the 'Files to delete' menu, especially 'Previous Windows Installations' and 'Temporary Windows Installation Files.' Click Delete Files. It will take a few minutes to compl 9. Click Yes to confirm. It will take a couple of minutes to complete the deletion process. Speed Up Your Shutdowns If you're old enough to have used a PC in the 1990s, you'll remember how quickly it shut off; you just hit the power button and walked away.
Though Windows 10 boots very quickly, it can still take a while to shut down or restart. Part of the issue is that the OS waits a long time before exiting any programs you have running.
In some cases, Windows 10 even stops and waits indefineitely for you force close open applications. If you decided to reboot your computer, you probably meant to close that Wordpad window with the readme.txt file open in it. You can speed up your shutdowns by setting Windows 10 to kill processes and applications in short order. Open regedit by hitting Windows + R and typing 'regedit' into the box.
Navigate to HKEYLOCALMACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Control. Open WaitToKillServiceTimeout. Set the value to 2000 and click Ok. This is the amount of time, in milliseconds, that Windows waits to kill an unresponsive service. Most sites recommend you set this no lower than 2000 so that the system has some time to shut these processes without causing a problem. Navigate to HKEYCURRENTUSER Control Panel Desktop. Create a String Value and name it WaitToKillAppTimeOut.
You can create a string value by right clicking in the right pane and selecting New String Value. Open WaitToKillAppTimeOut and set it to 2000. Create a String Value called HungAppTimeout and set it to 2000. Create another Sting Called AutoEndTasks and set it to 1. Infini/tive Says: I am an intermediate user - I've been tech support for everyone I know since Windows 95.
I don't disable UAC on my computers because: 1. The popups are not that annoying, especially since I only see them a couple times a week. They are an extra chance to undo an unintentional mouse click or keystroke that could cause a problem. It is useful to know when such a popup is judged by the Almighty to be necessary. One of the things I love about Windows is how much control over things like this the user is given.
UAC could be seen as heavy-handed, but IT CAN BE DISABLED. How on Earth could anyone complain about a function that can be disabled? Nanya Biznez Says: 'If you plan to stay with Windows 10 (and you should.'
As an IT Manager for 20 years, I can say that this is the worst advice in the article. Windows 10 makes Windows 8.x look like artwork, and 8.x was a massive piece of junk. They started working on killing it months after it was released. Win10 took out features that have been in Windows for years.
For starters, they categorize system settings and you're forced to learn the categories, there's no way to view large or small icons or a list. You have to use the search function to get to features you need. And that's just the TIP of the iceberg. And that iceberg will sink your enjoyment and productivity very soon. I see a lot of comments that look like they come from beginners.
RUN, don't walk away from this massive disaster. Roll back as soon as you can.
The best OS in years from Microsoft is Windows 7. Get someone who knows what they're doing to get it installed on your computer and give Windows 10 about 5 years to get usable, then make the switch. Anything else is lunacy. Everyone I know who is any good with computers has switched away from Win 10. Piltch is telling you to delete the files that allow you to roll back. 15Gb of HD space is nothing anymore.
Ask yourself why he would tell you to do this. Is someone getting a stipend from Microsoft? My guess is yes. AndyC Says: Wow, I would have never thought disabling UAC would cause such an uproar. I've never used it personally since Vista, but I'm careful. I let my judgment of the experience level of the user determine if I disable it on other people's machines. But for people to blast you for showing people how to access certain settings and helping knowledgeable users improve the efficiency of the OS - I could see one comment like that, but so many??
Maybe its the expanded use of smart phones and apps that is causing the dumbing down of the average computer user. I loved your advice. Maybe if you'd have put a preamble on the article saying that this advice is for experienced users. But maybe that's implied here.
Do the people blasting you really think 'yes clickers' or Grandma are the types that read articles like this? I think your advice is excellent advice for your typical audience. Keep it coming!! Richard Settle Says: This is perfect. UAC is worthless if your the only user and not click-happy. Any security risk posed by disabling it is easily mitigated by anti-virus, anti-malware and an ad blocker which you should have anyway (I recommend AdBlock Plus in Chrome for best results). So much salt in the comments on a post over 6 months old is great.
This article was not written with anyone less than an enthusiast in mind. If you don't trust your user to tinker with the registry, or have admin privs, this article is clearly not for them. If their using Internet Explorer/Edge, calling that other browsser 'FoxFire' or just using it for Facebook/YouTube/Email; they don't need this modifications and can go with the stock product. Also, rstrui.exe: System Restore is the best thing Microsoft ever did, why they would limit or turn it off is beyond me. Set the restore points as large as you comfortably can, so when system stability starts to tank (which it eventually will) you have a safety net and some options to pinpoint the source of the problem.
Doing a reload (because you couldn't opt-out of that critical update) with all the license keys to re-enter or Steam games to re-download is a waste of a perfectly good evening. Harry Says.continued. That's like saying remove road hazard signs cause people don't read them or pay attention to them anyway.
A smart and careful Windows user will see the message and at the very least consider it unexpected when they never install anything and they will pay attention to it or ask somebody who understands it. It is the illiterate and careless user who will ignore it and so don't punish everyone because of the actions of a few or even many.
Err on the side if caution always. (3) nothing ever gets silently installed on my machine when uac is enabled Whiever said things get silently installed even with uac enabled better do a full ststem restore because their system is compromised. The remaining arguments are similar and are not included in this message. Have a great day and do your readers a great service by redlining the suggestion. Says: Everyone please quit screwing around with UAC. It's a water pistol in a gun fight.
Users happily click allow for everything. It's worthless. If your security is left to your users, you have no security.
Buy a Pro or Enterprise version of Windows and use Software Restriction Policy or AppLocker for real security. Take away local admin privileges. Whitelist approved apps, everything else is denied. Everything trying to run from temp is blocked, and this handles blocking more malware than UAC or antivirus combined. Arvine Ewing Says: Some useful tips, although unhiding protected files risks damage to to Windows by unexperienced users.
Showing file extensions are irrelevant for most users. Replacing Edge browsers by another defaukt browser is also a matter of pwersonal preference.
The 'contreversy' over User Access Control is unfounded. Apple simply prompts the user for their password when any changes or program installation is attempted. I've never even observed an instance where a UAC orompt appeared when malware or rootkit viruses from rogue browser scripts, fake email attachments or 'driver update' 'registry scrubber' crapware installed itself. Anyone responsible for maintaining computers for other users in an organizatiob wouldnremove administrator privileges and enable or create an admin account.
Obsessing and hurling insults over User Access Control is like the chihuaua guarding your front door. Some useful tips, others that will have less experienced users at the mercy of a part-time Geek Squad student telling them they need a new hard disk, power supply and 1 month labor.
Kerbis Says: So, you have everything running as an admin and anything that wants to launch itself, can - without requiring any user intervention. That's great. The third role of UAC is to manage security tokens.
If your account has admin privileges associated with it, at logon you are provided a standard user token only. This is enough for you to be able to go about your business, browse the web, run apps that don't require admin rights etc. If however you need to elevate ( either automatically with the embedded manifest, OR manually, and the UAC prompt is approved, you will switch to your full token which contains the necessary administrator privileges. Once the action is completed, the use of that token switches back to standard user.
Kerbnews Says: So, beyond the fact that everything you launch runs at the same high level integrity, Next mechanic you miss is the use of the secure desktop for UAC approvals - it was less noticeable on Windows Vista/7 where the screen dimmed and showed your icons/apps/wallpaper in the background. Any action that prompts a UAC elevation request appears within an isolated session known as Secure Desktop. This is a protected space where apps cannot ( or are at least prevented if possible ) from pro-grammatically intercepting UAC prompts ( such as automatically answering prompts to install ( see XP days for malicious code ). Kerbis Says: From a high level overview perspective, every process executable since Windows Vista has an integrity label stated within its design that dictates what level of privilege is required to run it, ie. Notepad only requires basic Medium level integrity, where as administrative tools typically require High (which is why you will see prompts to elevate). You can see this easily by simply opening notepad.exe within notepad and looking for the XML manifest. Look for 'RequestedExecutionLevel'.
Under the security concept of least access required, that is typically 'as invoker', which will run the app by default as a medium level integrity process and help isolate its activities from being able to impact higher level processes. So the responsibility of the prompt is to ensure that any request to elevate access is known and approved by the user. Grey Matter Says: Avram, Avram, Avram - where do you get those ideas? Are you that easily irritated? From your words, I get the impression that you think Windows is simply annoying you by asking 'are you sure?' When it should know that you intentionally double-clicked on an executable file.
None of those things is true. Since you appear ignorant of its inner workings, I would suggest that you spend a few minutes researching how UAC actually works and what it actually does before you abuse the power of the written word and suggest to the Windows user community that they disable this important security feature. Duckworth Says: Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, misinformed it may be.
I have worked in network security for 20 years, the UAC is disabled on all workstation computers and access is controlled through the server policies. @Hurp- maybe you could explain, exactly how does the UAC allow you to verify file integrity, or verify the source? It cannot, it simply say's, 'allow or deny' and it does this with everything, I mean everything, you do, It is not a security device. If you click 'allow', it will run regardless, whether it's good or bad. If you click 'deny', then you may as well, walk away and play scrabble. Your computer is virtually useless.
So, really, seriously, in the real world,who has ever, clicked, 'deny', when trying to get some work done, and run something that you yourself have intentionally downloaded. That's why we have 'real', security software that can detect 'actual' bad things and warn us. The UAC does Nothing when we all click 'allow'. I am the Administrator, and the UAC was developed for a simple network work situation, where people work in a file sharing place, to prevent others running programs on your,sometimes shared workstation. But, you have to be sitting there and see that it was not you that started that. So you can 'deny' it.
To sit there and do it to your self is complete madness. You actually do this and call me an idiot, a joke right? Since Windows 7, the actual Admin account is hidden and locked. I actually want to get things done, so yes, why not use the admin account, It's my computer isn't it. You must be one of those that believe that using the admin account gives you full access, it does not, google it, my friend, and learn something new. You are all, like I said simply misinformed. Hu rp McDerp Says: @ron - Anybody who thinks that disabling the UAC notifications is a good idea is a complete idiot.
Those notifications are there for a reason. You could easily download a program that was altered by a malicious third party en route to you. The notification allow you to verify file integrity and to make sure it really is from the right source. I bet you use the Administrator account for day to day usage too. Or complained about presing crl-alt-delete to login without knowing the reason.
Do you think the developers where bored one day and just wanted to troll lazy users?? If you don't see why crippling security measures due to the burden of one or two clicks is horrible advice, then you have no business calling other people misinformed.
Oh, the irony. Duckworth Says: Very good article. The comments from very misinformed people About UAC is also interesting. The article shows how to disable the UAC notification and it cannot be disabled this way.
Windows 10 is different to 7. The UAC is still working, you just won't receive the pop up message.
To completely disable UAC in 10 requires a registry fix. Those who somehow believe the UAC in windows is an essential 'security device', know nothing about computers.
It does not help prevent malware at all. Michelle Says: I have a couple questions. Re: the OS taking a long time to shut down.does it just look at what I Did like as per my actions on a program?
Or does it also equally look at what I Don't do? If it doesn't look equally at both, than I can't see how it will maintain any kind of progress in improving my experience with it and it would be indicating that it blindly pushes it's own people's work and likely doesn't get a good enough quantity of peer review to make the colllection of the upgrade-y downloads available as being at a sufficient quality standard. My computer on Windows XP. Seemed to be smarter than a platform that wouldn't safeguard from unintelligent upgrades.
Maybe Bill Gates needs a hiring policy for his developers or take back that ownership responsibility because random sampling as a means of acquiring employees who may be fly he night hacks is not the way we increase the quality of things. Please respond. And address All issues raised in this comment. Eliminating all Overt and Covert dishonesty. Jack T Says: Wow, that was all terrible advice.
Do NOT disable UAC prompts. Windows finally implements a security model which starts catching up with OS X and Linux, and the first thing you do is break it?? And why would you show hidden and protected files before you need to for a specific purpose? Just to make it easier to accidentally delete one?
Most of these recommendations will make your Windows installation less secure, not more. Seriously wondering if this article is from a malware author trying to soften up targets.
How To Use Advanced Installer
You can change the setup.exe icon, but I'm not sure about the.msi. I haven't tested this with it. Build the setup project in Visual Studio. Open the setup.exe file you just built, File - Open - File. Right click the Icon node in the file explorer window and you can change and save. Import the icon your want in the popup dialog, and make sure the ID of the icon is the smallest one. A quick Google search pulled up some other approaches, so if this won't work for your particular case, check some of out.
It is not possible to change the icon of the msi. It does not have an icon set on it. It is just a document that is handled as install package if you have Windows Installer installed. If not, you will actually just see the windows default icon for unknown file types! For the setup.exe, you can do it by editing the icon(s) on the exe after it is build. Answer from mc2thaH (steps 2-4) is one approach. Another tool for icon editing is Greenfish Icon Editor Pro, which is a very good free icon editor with full support for 32bit image editing.
Free Setup Installer
Msi cant be edited. At the same time setup exe doenst have all the valid informations. The best way to handle this is to have an msi to exe converter. Smart zipper pro mac cracked minecraft. EgeUE-MSI-to-EXE is a good converter which need not be installed. It converts msi to exe on the fly. Now you can edit the icon of this exe from your visual studio as explained by @mkchandler.
Bear in mind that the logo you are going to import has to be.ico file to avoid further complications. I did not get a jpg or bmp image working as the icon. Ico works fine like a breeze.
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