Controlling Shortcut order in wix

Question

Given a Wix installer with multiple shortcuts in the start menu, how can I, without renaming the shortcuts, control the order they appear in the start menu?

Answer 1

The selected answer is wrong. You CAN change the order of the shortcuts in the programs menu (and its subfolders), by dragging them and moving them around. They will stay in the order in which you place them.

The location of the registry keys that store the shortcut order is: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Menu Order\Start Menu\

This key has various shortcut folders, and the order of the shortcuts is stored in the Order binary values for each folder.

Someone on ExpertsExchange has done some work reverse engineering the order key format. As far as I know the order cannot be set via APIs. http://www.experts-exchange.com/OS/Microsoft_Operating_Systems/Windows/2000/Q_20618339.html

Answer 2

It's not possible. Start menu entries are just shortcut files stored in folders like any other file. They do not have an intrinsic order that affects how they are shown in the start menu.