Win7 removing pinned icons

[Danielk1]

I am constantly installing/uninstalling a program for work to test. However, whenever I pin a shortcut to a file that is delivered upon install - it gets removed once I uninstall the program. I follow this thread, but my maintenance system was already disabled. Is there a way to prevent the icons from being unpinned?

 

[MilesAhead]

Welcome to the Forums.

Perhaps for testing purposes you could create a .cmd file that simply called the program passing the pinned filename. Windows should see the file pinned to the batch file and not remove it.

 

[Danielk1]

Pinned cmd files are not supported on win7 without the awkward work around. I believe I had tried to pin other cmd files and they were removed on reboot? Not entirely sure.

 

[MilesAhead]

How about an AutoIt3 file compiled to exe?

If $CmdLine[0] < 1 Then Exit ; quit if no file passed on command line
ShellExecute("x:\folder\yourexe.exe",$CmdLine[1])

 

[Danielk1]

I was really looking for an solution that didn't need an external dependency. I'm thinking worst case scenario - I could copy the shortcuts back into the system folder that hold the pinned icons since I already run a .bat file after every install.

 

[MilesAhead]

A million ways to skin the cat. You could take a look at Inno Setup. It may have scripting commands to do the pinning after running the program's installer. It's free and very versatile. The scripting is a Pascal subset. Very easy to learn even for non programmers.

 

[MilesAhead]

If the system returns to the same state every time another way would be to use a macro recorder. After installing the software record your setup actions. The macro utility will play them back instead of doing it manually on subsequent installs.

 

[Danielk1]

If the system returns to the same state every time another way would be to use a macro recorder. After installing the software record your setup actions. The macro utility will play them back instead of doing it manually on subsequent installs.

That's really cool. I have been trying to smooth the install process since we install ever few builds that come off. I will see what I can find on macros. Thanks!