In the Windows 8 Start screen, I noticed that there is an Uninstall icon that appears at the bottom if you right-click on an app. For the apps that I developed, if I click on the Uninstall icon, it opens the “Programs and Features” dialog. Ideally it should instead directly launch my uninstaller. Does anyone know how to do that? Is there some registry key I need to set to associate Start Menu shortcuts with uninstallers?
I use various technologies to make my apps (e.g. Qt, C#, Visual Studio setup projects, NSIS). On Windows 7 and below, my installers put shortcuts in the Start Menu. On Windows 8, those shortcuts are displayed as a little square in the Start screen. So that shortcut is the object I am right-clicking on. Is there some way to add uninstall data to the shortcut file itself?
Tiles for desktop applications do not automatically uninstall like tiles for store applications. Choosing ‘Uninstall’ for a desktop applications tile launches the Add / Remove programs experience as you pointed out. This is by design.