On windows we have two options --win-menu and --win-shortcut that control creation of desktop or menu shortcuts in msi or exe installer. However we have a policy of creating a menu shortcut if neither are requested.
On Linux in both deb and rpm installer we create desktop shortcut without giving any option for the developer to control.
On MacOS the packages (DMG or PKG) are not really installers, and no shortcuts are created.

I propose we revisit the above policy on windows and consider new option to git the developer control of wheater or not a shortcut is created on Linux.