Missing Icon in Add/Remove Programs for ClickOnce Application

Question

I am currently working on a ClickOnce application, and I noticed that a default icon is used instead of the actual application icon in the Add/Remove programs list.  The icon displays correctly in the start menu.

Is this a known limitation of ClickOnce applications, or can it be fixed?

Answer 1

I also have the same problem.  An answer would be great!!

Answer 2

It is by design that default icon is shown in Add/Remove Programs eventhough you have custom icon in Start Menu. Are there any reasons that you must have custom icons in Add/Remove Programs?

Answer 3

Pretty much every other application in Add/Remove programs has a custom icon, so a ClickOnce application that doesn't have the appropriate icon is more difficult to locate in the list and looks unprofessional, as well as not following what seems to be the accepted standard.

If this is by design then I guess I can't do anything about it, thanks for the insight.

Answer 4

Was there an answer on this?

I too would like to have a custom icon appear in the add remove programs while using click once.

I don see where there was an answer regarding how to do this. These only seem to be a questions as to why one would want to do it.

Can it be done? I definitely would like to provide a custom icon in the add remove programs window. It helps with application identification, and it also looks more professional.

 

Answer 5

Unfortunately it cannot be done in current version of ClickOnce.

Answer 6

I was able to come up with a solution, but it involves editing the registry.  Below is some sample code:

RegistryKey myUninstallKey = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(@"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall");

    string[] mySubKeyNames = myUninstallKey.GetSubKeyNames();

    for (int i = 0; i < mySubKeyNames.Length; i++)
    {
     RegistryKey myKey = myUninstallKey.OpenSubKey(mySubKeyNames, true);

     object myValue = myKey.GetValue("DisplayName");

     if (myValue != null && (string)myValue == _ApplicationName)
     {
      myKey.SetValue("DisplayIcon", _ExecutablePath + @"\App.ico");

      break;
     }
    }

Basically I loop through the available applications that can be uninstalled on the computer, and set the DisplayIcon value of my application to the location on disk of the appropriate icon file.  This code gets executed the first time the application gets launched.

Answer 7

Has anyone come up with a solution to this that doesn't involve manually configuring the registry?  The problem with that is that it requires elevated permissions to the registry (beyond what a Standard User has permission to).

Surely it isn't unreasonable to expect the application icon to be used for its listing in Add/Remove programs... 

Answer 8

for some reason I cannot find any answer to this issue whatsoever, I have created my own thread here somewhere and also got no helpful response.

 

heres my scenario;

 

I need find out how the clickonce runtime determines what the add\remove entries should be for an installed clickonce app.

 

My issue is that some of the apps we deploy show the custom icon and size and some just show the default icon and nothing else, I have probably spent 6 hours or more just trying to figure this out lol.

We use .Net 2.0

 

I have delved into the registry settings and ran regmon and compared the manifest files between 1 app that has all the entries and 1 that doesn’t. I have googled dfshim.dll and dfsvc.exe and getting nowhere, experts exchange seems to have an article on this but I don’t have an account, yet lol.

 

Answer 9

^^^^^^^^

any answers to this for petes sake?  lol

 

Icon for clickonce app in add remove is the default icon even though its specifies an icon file in the .exe.manifest

 

 

 

Answer 10

Two years on and still this thread is open with no definitive guidance. An earlier post put the position clearly: most apps. in add/remove programs have branded icons that correspond to the start menu entry so why doesn't clickonce just use the app. icon?

 

Providing this would not seem to violate the ClickOnce holy grail of a light footprint so what is the problem ? The issue continues in VS2008.

 

If this is "by design" please could we have that confirmed,preferrably with some justification. That way we can avoid wasting time before posting new builds looking for a solution/workaround.

 

Mind you, on reflection, I'm still using ClickOnce two years on and my customers seem to be coming round to it so take this as half-a-rant !

 

 

 

Answer 11

It's now 2009 and we're using .Net 3.5 SP1 and its updates to ClickOnce. However, I'm still unable to find out how or why the icon my manifest specifies is not being used in the "Programs and Features"or "Add/Remove Programs" window.

I 'think' that 6 months ago, it was working. I can't guarantee that it was, as I have no evidence, but from memory, I think we had our application's icon sitting in our "Programs and Features" window. But now its gone. And not only that, the icon being used instead is a Blank Document icon. This is even stranger, as at least I should think that a ClickOnce default icon is used. Other users have reported that their icon is working but using an incorrect icon, one from another one of our products. This is also very strange.

Is there any new reasons that .Net 3.5 SP1 would have messed around with our icons? Why do we get a Blank Page icon now, instead of the generic ClickOnce icon. And what would make our ClickOnce installation confuse its icon with other products? Perhaps a certificate reason?

It would be good to know where we stand with icons in the Windows Add/Remove window now that we're in .Net 3.5 SP1.

Thanks,
Andre

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A

Answer 12

This may help explain:
http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2004/07/09/178342.aspx 

Basically, if there is no explicit icon in ARP, Windows guesses.

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Phil Wilson

Answer 13

I'd like to know about official solution as well.

Answer 14

Hi

There is no official solution.

RobinDotNet

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Click here to visit my ClickOnce blog!
Microsoft MVP, Client App Dev

Answer 15

This may help explain:
http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2004/07/09/178342.aspx 

Basically, if there is no explicit icon in ARP, Windows guesses.

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Phil Wilson

In the blog posted above there is no information on where Windows (Windows 7 in my case) gets the icon information.

I have a clean installation and for some reason a lot of programs show a standard icon in the "add/remove programs wizard".

If the above algorhitm is also used to determine icon locations this would explain, but i was wondering if anyone could point me into the right direction as to where these icon settings are stored?

[Edit]

Ah, i noticed there is also a 'DisplayIcon' value which does not seem to have been created for various applications.

Answer 16

To keep the thread alive: Why is there still no solution for this and is it coming in the future and when? I mean saying there is no official solution without any further explanation doesn't really help anyone who just wants to develop a nice app..

Answer 17

If they retire some part of Visual Studio, they will replace it with something else. (Are 'Installer' projects the same as Setup & Deployment projects?)

By the way, here's some code you can run to update the icon in add/remove programs. We run this when the application starts up, and we use the same icon that our application displays.

/// <summary>
/// set the icon in add/remove programs for all GoldMail products (because this code is only in Akamai for now)
/// </summary>
private static void SetAddRemoveProgramsIcon()
{
  //only run if deployed 
  if (System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationDeployment.IsNetworkDeployed
     && ApplicationDeployment.CurrentDeployment.IsFirstRun)
  {
    try
    {
      string iconSourcePath = Path.Combine(System.Windows.Forms.Application.StartupPath, "GM_GoldBlueG_multi.ico");
      if (!File.Exists(iconSourcePath))
        return;

      RegistryKey myUninstallKey = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(@"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall");
      string[] mySubKeyNames = myUninstallKey.GetSubKeyNames();
      for (int i = 0; i < mySubKeyNames.Length; i++)
      {
        RegistryKey myKey = myUninstallKey.OpenSubKey(mySubKeyNames[i], true);
        object myValue = myKey.GetValue("DisplayName");
        if (myValue != null && myValue.ToString() == "GoldMailAkamai")
        {
          myKey.SetValue("DisplayIcon", iconSourcePath);
          break;
        }
      }
    }
    catch (Exception ex) {}
  }
}

RobinDotNet

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Click here to visit my ClickOnce blog!
Microsoft MVP, Client App Dev