Question

For example, is it possible to set the Output path to your app folder within Program Files?

%ProgramFiles%\MyCompany\MyApp\ does not work.

Answer 1

quoted by Microsoft here:

Unfortunately this is by design. We do
not support using environment
variables in the UI however you can
edit the file manually in notepad and
specify variable names as you were
trying $(varname). This workaround
will not enable you to make edits to
the property in the project properties
however.

so changing the OutputPath property in your project file to:

<OutputPath>$(ProgramFiles)\MyCompany\MyApp\</OutputPath>

will work but all it does (as you can see when you open the project again in Visual Studio and look at the project properties) is include the relative path from your solution dir to the output dir.