CrossOver Support - Community Forums

I couldn't find a thread on this via search, so if this has been covered somewhere already, sorry in advance.

I'm trying to add a game to the CXG programs menu that has no installer. I attempted using the game's .exe as an installer and it ran fine, but wasn't added to the menu as there was no install process to run. It simply ran the program as normal when I chose it as an 'installer' to get it into the menu.

Since that didn't work, is there a way to manually add a shortcut to the menu myself? I have a slew of indie titles without installers that work via CXG, but I can't add them to the menu and have to locate them in finder to open them, which is kind of a pain.

I want to second this question. An app I have here (Perfect World Russian [mail.ru version]) has an installer but as soon as you have it installed somewhere once there's no point in doing re-install - it's "portable" and works just fine as is. I know that I may use "Run command..." feature from "Manage Bottles" dialog box, and I also know that I have a possibility to "Create a launcher" for it. That's OK, but what I want to know is are there any "right way" (TM) to add an app to the "Windows Games" menu besides using an installer to do a full re-install of the game? If there's no easy way to accomplish this task then it's IMHO the major flaw in cxgames usability: while it's not that hard for experienced people to use command line and/or "Run windows command..." dialog box to launch an app which doesn't have an installer, less geeky users would definitely have a problem with it.

terry burr wrote:

I couldn't find a thread on this via search, so if this has been
covered somewhere already, sorry in advance.

I'm trying to add a game to the CXG programs menu that has no
installer. I attempted using the game's .exe as an installer and it
ran fine, but wasn't added to the menu as there was no install
process to run. It simply ran the program as normal when I chose it
as an 'installer' to get it into the menu.

Since that didn't work, is there a way to manually add a shortcut to
the menu myself? I have a slew of indie titles without installers
that work via CXG, but I can't add them to the menu and have to
locate them in finder to open them, which is kind of a pain.

You can create an installer for your .exe's via this process:

http://www.codeweavers.com/support/wiki/mac/mactutorial/create_launcher

Since your program wasn't installed first (it's a "run only" .exe file) the choice of bottle probably isn't that important, but note that you'll be looking outside the bottle for the .exe, rather than into drive_c/Program Files/...

Alexey Loukianov wrote:

I want to second this question. An app I have here (Perfect World
Russian [mail.ru version]) has an installer but as soon as you have
it installed somewhere once there's no point in doing re-install -
it's "portable" and works just fine as is. I know that I may use
"Run command..." feature from "Manage Bottles" dialog box, and I
also know that I have a possibility to "Create a launcher" for it.
That's OK, but what I want to know is are there any "right way" (TM)
to add an app to the "Windows Games" menu besides using an installer
to do a full re-install of the game? If there's no easy way to
accomplish this task then it's IMHO the major flaw in cxgames
usability: while it's not that hard for experienced people to use
command line and/or "Run windows command..." dialog box to launch an
app which doesn't have an installer, less geeky users would
definitely have a problem with it.

Based on your question I think you will be disappointed with my answer, but...

In situations other than a clean install of a program (which should create the launcher icon), the "right way" is to use the "create launcher" feature inside Run Command:

http://www.codeweavers.com/support/wiki/linux/linuxtutorial/create_launcher

If all goes well (i.e. a launcher was created and the program runs), I personally view this process as being an "easy way", but I suppose that's all subjective ;)

Jack Phinney wrote:

... In situations other than a clean install of a program (which
should create the launcher icon), the "right way" is to use the
"create launcher" feature inside Run Command: ...

Actually what I've been unable to find at the first glance were the way to get the created launcher to appear not as an icon at the DE desktop, but rather as an item on the "Windows games" menu. It took me some time to find out that I can choose where to place the created "app shortcut" at the moment the "launcher" gets created. Placing it to the "Start menu" does just right what I wanted to achieve. Next problem I faced was "the correct way" to change an icon for the newly created launcher but that's not that hard task after all. In any case, thanks for your answer and for the link to the tutorial you had provided me with - it's worth reading for any CrossOver Games newcomer.