Printed Icetips Article

SB10 Tips & Tricks #2: Pin to Start Screen and Pin to Taskbar

Background: as you probably know, applications which are installed during deployment can't be automatically pinned to the Start Screen in Windows 8.1 or to Start (tiles) in Windows 10. This is a significant and permanent change in Start Screen behavior from Windows 8.0. As a result, many computer users can't find the installed application. This change introduced challenges for enterprises who need to ensure certain applications are automatically pinned to the user's Start screen. The following is an interesting DELL Knowledge Base which links to a Lindersoft "FAQ: Application shortcuts in Windows 8.1" support thread: https://support.software.dell.com/desktop-authority/kb/145537 http://www.lindersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40668 Solution: The brand new "Pin to Start" feature in SetupBuilder 10 lets you do the impossible -- automatically pin your application to the Start screen, back to where you deserve it to be! This can help to save a significant amount of support costs.

How to handle Pin to Start with SetupBuilder 10?

Enable the "Pin to Start (Win10) or Start Screen (Win8.1)" option in the Shortcut Properties and the compiler will do the rest. SetupBuilder 10 lets you add application tiles to the Windows 10 Start menu and pin applications to the Windows 8.1 Start screen.

How to handle Pin to Taskbar with SetupBuilder 10?

Enable the "Pin to Taskbar (Win7+)" option in the Shortcut Properties. At installer runtime, a shortcut to the launcher will be automatically added to the taskbar, and will stay pinned. This option replaces the "Pin to Taskbar..." script function from previous SetupBuilder versions. Note: The Windows operating system needs some time to "synchronize" the Shortcut properties. So the elevated running installer has to create an "artificial" wait period to give Windows some time to get its stuff together. Sometimes, Windows "removes" the newly created tiles on Windows 10 after the 2nd or 3rd installation process (e.g. when you test the install images). Microsoft are aware of the issue and hopefully fix it soon! -- Friedrich Linder Lindersoft | SetupBuilder | www.lindersoft.com 954.252.3910 (within US) | +1.954.252.3910 (outside US) Click on the images below to open them full size in a viewer.