Visual Studio 2022 Build Failure Due to Shortcut Creation Issue

Here’s what you can do for a focused troubleshooting checklist for this issue:

1.      Reinstall Visual Studio Installer Projects Extension

Sometimes, the extension that supports setup projects may be corrupted.

·         Go to extension> Manage Extensions> installed

·         Uninstall Microsoft Visual Studio Installer Projects

·         Restart Visual Studio

·         Reinstall it from Extensions for Visual Studio family of products | Visual Studio Marketplace

2.      Run Visual Studio as Administrator

Shortcut creation might be blocked due to permission issues.

·         Right-click Visual Studio -> Run as Administrator

·         Then try building again.

3.      Check target shortcut path

If shortcut points to a non-existent or inaccessible file, the build fails.

·         Open your .vdproj file in text editor

·         Find the section with Shortcut entries

·         Confirm the Target path exists on the machine

4.      Check User Profile or corrupt cache

A corrupt Visual Studio user profile may be the culprit

·         Reset VS setting:

Devenv  /resetsettings

·         Or try a clean build:

Delete bin/,obj/,.vs/ folders manually or rebuild the project

5.      Disable Antivirus/ Security Policies

Some endpoint protection systems block script- based or installer-driven shortcut creation.

·         Temporarily disable antivirus/firewall

·         Check group policy editor:

Gpedit.msc > User Configuration > Administrative Templated > Start Menu and Taskbar > Do not use the search-based method when resolving shell shortcuts > Set to Not Configured

6.      Compare Environment Variables and Installed Components

On the machine where it does work, compare:

·         Environment variables (especially PATH, TEMP)

·         Installed Visual Studio components under Tools  >  Get Tools and Features.

Hope this helps , Please try this and let me know again if there are any queries