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How to guide to pin Portable Browsers to the Taskbar without creating duplicate icons.

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gaveitatry
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How to guide to pin Portable Browsers to the Taskbar without creating duplicate icons.


PROOF THAT IT WORKS:
(I deleted the image)

UPDATES:
February 03, 2021 - This method no longer works. I had a standalone Firefox Portable browser that was up-to-date and this method was working just fine. But as soon as I did a fresh install of the same portable browser, it quit working. So in the end, I had to use PortableApps.com Platform. I am glad that I did. It makes things a lot easier. But for those people who like tweaking things and learning new stuff, maybe you can use the following information for something else.

NOTES:
01.) I didn't want to use 'PortableApps.com' to pin my 'Firefox Portable' browser for various reasons. Scroll down to the very bottom for more information.
02.) The following method will also work with all other portable browsers and portable apps.
03.) For my instructions, I will be using 'Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition' as an example.

CREDITS:
RaMMicHaeL, the developer of '7+ Taskbar Tweaker'. He is the one who told me about the 'Win7AppID' tool.

STEP #01 - FIND OUT YOUR PORTABLE APP'S APPID.
1.) Open up a Windows PowerShell command prompt and enter the following command:
get-StartApps
2.) This will create a list of programs that you have installed on your computer. Look for 'Firefox Portable'. Double click the AppID number to highlight it, and then press CTRL + C to copy it. Then paste this AppID number in a Notepad document. You will need it later.

STEP #02 - DOWNLOAD A DUMMY EXE. WE WILL ONLY BE USING THIS TEMPORARILY.
01.) https://sourceforge.net/projects/exeresource/files/latest/download (you can use any dummy exe that you find online)
02.) Download 'Simple EXE Resource' from the above website. It will actually save as a 'existential.zip' folder. It doesn't matter where you save it, as long as you remember the location.
03.) Extract the 'existential.zip' folder. The folder's name will be 'existential'.
04.) Delete the 'existential.bas' and 'WTFPLv3.txt' files inside the folder. We only need 'existential.exe'.
05.) Right click the 'existential.exe' file and select 'Create Shortcut'.
06.) Rename the shortcut that you just created to '01'.
07.) Right click the '01.lnk' shortcut that you just created and select 'Pin to Taskbar'. You can drag it to wherever you want on the Taskbar, but don't click on it or run it.

STEP #03 - DOWNLOAD THE 'WIN7APPID' TOOL TO CHANGE THE SHORTCUT'S APPID.
01.) https://code.google.com/archive/p/win7appid/downloads
02.) Download the Jan 27, 2010 program called 'Win7AppID.exe'
03.) Move this 'Win7AppID.exe' into "C:\Users\{YOURUSERNAME}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar".

STEP #04 - GIVE THE NEW SHORTCUT THE CORRECT APPID AND TARGET PATH.
01.) Go to "C:\Users\{YOURUSERNAME}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar". You should see a different copy of the '01.lnk' shortcut that you have pinned to the Taskbar. You will need to edit the Properties of this shortcut file.
02.) In the "C:\Users\{YOURUSERNAME}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar" folder, click inside the rectangle box at the top of the File Explorer window. This will highlight everything. Type 'cmd' without the single quotation marks, and press the Enter key. This will create a Command Prompt window.
03.) Inside the Command Prompt window, type the following and press Enter:
Win7AppId 01.lnk 2B22C18D2D4725BA
Note: 2B22C18D2D4725BA was the AppID of my 'Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition' app. But your AppID will be different, so use the AppID that you obtained in STEP #01.
04.) Right click the '01.lnk' shortcut and select 'Properties'.
05.) Go to the folder where you have 'Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition' installed. Right click the 'FirefoxPortable.exe' and select 'Create Shortcut'. Right click that new shortcut and select 'Properties'.
06.) Now replace the 'Target:' path in '01.lnk' with the 'Target:' path that is in 'FirefoxPortable.lnk'. And do the same for 'Start in:'. Click 'Apply' to save the changes.
07.) Go ahead and rename the '01.lnk' shortcut to something better like 'Mozilla Firefox'.
08.) The shortcut that you have pinned to the Taskbar should now open up 'Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition' exactly where your pinned icon is, and it should no longer create duplicate icons.

STEP #05 - DELETE EVERYTHING THAT YOU DOWNLOADED AND MAKE A BACKUP OF THE PINNED SHORTCUT.
01.) Go ahead and delete everything that you have downloaded so far.
02.) Go to "C:\Users\{YOURUSERNAME}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar". Right click the 'Firefox Portable.lnk' shorcut and select 'Copy'. Then 'Paste' a copy of it in a different, secure location. Why? If you accidentally click 'Unpin from Taskbar' one day, this shortcut that you spent so much time creating will have completely and permanently disappeared. Then what? If you have a backup of it, you can just put a copy of it back in the "...\User Pinned\TaskBar" folder, which will save you a lot of time and headache.
Note: I know that for 'Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition', updates won't affect the APPID. So you won't have to worry about repeating all the above steps. I'm not sure about other browsers though.


WHY I DIDN'T USE PORTABLEAPPS.COM?
I don't need or want to use PortableApps.Com. It's just an unnecessary program for me that takes up extra memory and space. I also don't like how any app that you install becomes a child folder of PortableApps.com. I want my portable apps to have their own folders, their own folder names, and their own folder locations without being dependent on anything else.

John T. Haller
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Bug Fix

Seems Firefox changed the way it handles the AppID in recent releases, so I posted a bugfix that'll be included in the next release allowing existing pins and new pins to work again: https://portableapps.com/node/63141

If you're unable to drag the link, I'd wager there's some sort of user permissions level issue (running PA.c Platform as a different user or permissions level) as it works without issue everywhere I try it.

Also, please note that this patch and the next Firefox Portable release will switch the AppID back to the way it was. X:\PathTo\FirefoxPortable\App\Firefox64\firefox.exe

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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