Pinned Taskbar link missing after update

[rmoc]

I have an application that has a desktop shortcut. I launch the application after installation and pin it to the taskbar.

Taskbar.png (675.74 KiB) Viewed 6627 times

I then create a new version of my application and install this update. The shortcut on the taskbar becomes invalid and can no longer be used. How can I prevent this from happening so that the shortcut remains intact?

error.png (22.24 KiB) Viewed 6627 times

I have created the following example project.

MissingPinnedLinks.zip

(152.5 KiB) Downloaded 109 times

[Catalin]

Hello Rene,

This behavior is quite normal and I'm afraid there isn't much we can do about it.

This happens because on upgrade, the EXE file that the pin was created for was removed, exactly as it says in the message.

Now, there isn't much we can about that except removing and repinning the shortcut to taskbar.

This has become increasingly difficult since Microsoft decided not to let installation packages pin to taskbar anymore - in the past, this was possible, although not easy.

Screenshot_121.png (22.97 KiB) Viewed 6153 times

Pin your app to the taskbar

Hope this helps somehow.

Best regards,
Catalin

[rmoc]

Hello Catalin

It’s a bit of a frustration for the end user to have to recreate the links they’ve set up manually after every update. I’m experiencing this issue on Windows Server 2019, which is based on Windows 10. The only option seems to be to set the installation order to ‘Install new version first then uninstall old version’ under Upgrades. However, I’m not sure if this will cause other problems that I can’t foresee at the moment.

But thanks anyway for the help.

Kind regards,
René

[Liviu]

You're always welcome, René!

I'm afraid this is the default behavior of the OS.

If you manually create a shortcut to a file, then replace that file (with the same name), this error will be displayed.

I think this is because Windows saves the details of the shortcut in the registry and maybe some information about the file is also saved and it sees that it is not the same file (e.g. the creation date has changed or been modified).

taskbaricon.png (61.92 KiB) Viewed 2677 times

This happens with any other shortcut to any application.

Microsoft recommends against automatically pinning to Taskbar as part of the installation as this should always be the user's choice.

https://www.advancedinstaller.com/user- ... ialog.html

Let us know if you have any other questions.

Best regards,
Liviu