[RESOLVED] [2005] Command Line Parameters

[Aspnot]

I have installed a VB 2005 application onto an XP machine and I have a few command line parameters (startup parameters) that I look for in my code. I was going to set some of these for one of our admins, but I cannot find a place to put them in the shortcut. Even after creating a shortcut on the desktop, there is no place to enter any sort of parameters.

The shortcut says "Application Reference" under "Type of file" instead of "Application".

PS - The application was "Published" to a shared location on the server.

Can someone give me an idea of where to go from here??

Thanks!!

[dustintinsley]

under the Target property of your shortcut, enter your paramters. For example:
"C:\Program Files\Soylent Backup\Soylent Backup.exe" -min

would pass the -min parameter.

[Aspnot]

I can't do that as this is a published application out of VB 2005. There are actually none of the typical "Shortcut" properties available on this icon.

This application is set to go live next week and I would really like to find an answer to this.

PS - I can put up a screenshot of the property page if necessary.

[Edneeis]

Did you try copying the shortcut to see if it enables the fields?

The publish feature of VB2005 is very limited and may not do what you need.

[JuggaloBrotha]

all shortcut's have a target property (or it wouldnt be a shortcut at all) therefor all you need to do is modify it by putting the double quotes around the path and filename that the shortcut points to (the exe file) then add the parameters by putting a dash then the parameter that needs to be passed

[Edneeis]

Sometimes the target property is disabled. I see it all the time at work.

Also applications installed via Click Once give you the exe properties even if you create a shortcut. They are actually not shortcuts (although you use 'Create Shortcut') it is an 'Application Reference'.

I don't think you can do this if you use Click Once deployment.

[Edneeis]

I found this: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xc3tc5xx.aspx

See if that helps.

[Aspnot]

First, Thanks JuggaloBrotha. One of the things on my todo list was setup a mechanism for printing the screen. I saw your signature and will use that. Thanks for saving me the search time!!


I have looked and looked and cannot find anything on how to make this work. As a bandaid for now, I think I am going to make an application that gives the user various options for startup and then store those in the registry. When the user next launches my application, it will run with those settings.

I would like to find a way around this, though.

[JuggaloBrotha]

perhaps when the installer makes the shortcut, you can tell it to supply commandline args to the target path

i think the deployment wizard that comes with visual studio allows this, but i'm not sure

Aspnot, Gigemboy's signature has a link to a screen capture class for vb.net that works better than the one in my sig, fyi

[Aspnot]

I still haven't figured this one out.

I've tried the suggestions here to no avail. I spent quite a bit of time this weekend going through the Publish options and didn't see anything that could help.

Hopefully someone else out there has an idea.

[Edneeis]

MS has stated that the publish funtionality is not ideal for all situations. I think you should look to 3rd party tools or traditional deployment methods as opposed to the publish function. I'm afraid it just can not do what you ask.

[Aspnot]

That's what I was starting to think. I may just opt to create several versions of the app with the various settings. The biggest thing I need is to have a TEST version of the app that points to the TEST database.

I will look into some of the other deployment options out there. This is apparently one downside to using the Express version.