[Request] EN to stay pinned to taskbar on update

[fverret 1]

I like having Evernote pinned to my taskbar for easy access. However, everything I update, its icon disappears from the taskbar. It is a minor annoyance, but it would be great if it would stay there.

[gazumped 11,652]

Just for the avoidance of doubt - which taskbar?

[Jammer 0]

Just for the avoidance of doubt - which taskbar?

 

I believe he's talking about the Windows taskbar at the bottom (or wherever you fancy your taskbar).

I've had the same issue for quite some time now at both home and work PC's. Both running Windows 7.

[jefito 5,589]

I stopped worrying about that awhile ago (I saw it with other applications as well). I just have Evernote set to run at startup, and I have no need to pin it.

[mikestockman 0]

Second vote for this particular issue being fixed. I prefer not to have Evernote start up with Windows, but only when I need it. But every update removes the pinned icon/shortcut from my Windows taskbar, and I have to dig in the Start menu for it. 

 

This is a case of respecting the user's wishes. If the user goes to the trouble of adding the icon to the task bar, the upgrade should respect that choice.

 

Thanks.

[Ian Daniel 10]

Agree, task bar option required. This is basic usability and they overlook it. 

[lasherid 0]

Please fix.  I'm also a Task Bar user.  It is a bother that shouldn't be.

[DarrylGittins 6]

Another request. This is really annoying that with each update, I have to repin EN to the Taskbar. Is there at least a registry edit or a batch fine that we could schedule to automate this? Any workaround at all???

 

[mfalkvidd 1]

+1

I am not sure why the Windows taskbar keeps losing the pin setting, but it must be something Evernote is doing during upgrade. Other applications (Firefox and Chrome for instance) aren't affected when they are upgraded.

[xtoq 6]

I too have this problem on two different machines. And @jefito, having Evernote start with Windows would be a great alternative to pinning it to the taskbar...except every time Evernote updates it resets the "Start Evernote when Windows starts" setting. I saw another forum thread about the start with Windows issue where (I believe) an Evernote employee said it was something they were aware of and working on.

 

@mfalkvidd: I've never seen this happen after an update with any other program I have pinned to my taskbar either, but that might just have to do with the types of programs I have.

 

When I get home from work today I'm going to open a ticket on both this issue and the "start with Windows" setting. I'll post an update if I find out more information. 

[jefito 5,589]

I too have this problem on two different machines. And @jefito, having Evernote start with Windows would be a great alternative to pinning it to the taskbar...except every time Evernote updates it resets the "Start Evernote when Windows starts" setting. I saw another forum thread about the start with Windows issue where (I believe) an Evernote employee said it was something they were aware of and working on.

Yes, that's bugged me me for awhile as well. I get it a lot because I follow the beta train as well, so I get fairly frequent updates. On the other hand, I don't reboot all that often, so not a big deal for me...

[as128 0]

I have this issue too.  In Windows 7 I have all my important apps Pinned to Taskbar, yet every time I click okay to update Evernote, it disappears from my Taskbar.  Please fix!

[vogelap 27]

+1 I completely agree with this request.

[jefito 5,589]

 

I too have this problem on two different machines. And @jefito, having Evernote start with Windows would be a great alternative to pinning it to the taskbar...except every time Evernote updates it resets the "Start Evernote when Windows starts" setting. I saw another forum thread about the start with Windows issue where (I believe) an Evernote employee said it was something they were aware of and working on.

Yes, that's bugged me me for awhile as well. I get it a lot because I follow the beta train as well, so I get fairly frequent updates. On the other hand, I don't reboot all that often, so not a big deal for me...

 

This particular issue fixed, and apparently has been for a little while (http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/54868-debug-menu-removed-as-from-version-52/?p=265615)

[BTaub 0]

FYI, the issue (i.e. After I 'pin' EN to the taskbar in Windows, the pin disappears when a new version of EN has been installed). isn't really fixed.  I believe the one you're pointing to is a different issue (i.e. get EN to start automatically when Windows starts, even after a new version of EN has been installed).

[jefito 5,589]

FYI, the issue (i.e. After I 'pin' EN to the taskbar in Windows, the pin disappears when a new version of EN has been installed). isn't really fixed.  I believe the one you're pointing to is a different issue (i.e. get EN to start automatically when Windows starts, even after a new version of EN has been installed).

Correct, one which was also mentioned in this topic.

[Wordsgood 526]

Just realized this is happening on my Windows 7. Apparently it's not fixed, after all. Oh well, not a big deal for me personally.

[dconnet 529]

Microsoft frowns on any installer messing with the task bar (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2003/09/03/54760.aspx). I believe (tho I haven't looked closely) that we do have some special cleanup code to remove the existing shortcut. Because if you don't, then an uninstall/install (or upgrade) would leave the old pinned item pointing to nothing. (I see that with other programs I use)

 

Also note http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd378460(VS.85).aspx, specifically "A small set of applications are pinned by default for new installations. Other than these, only the user can pin further applications; programmatic pinning by an application is not permitted."

[DoubtingNate 1]

I am on Windows 7.  I just installed the update today and was noticing the same problem with the taskbar; then figured out that if you locate Evernote in the start menu, right-click drag it to the Desktop to create a shortcut, you can pin THAT shortuct to the taskbar.  Hope this helps!

[mfalkvidd 1]

Microsoft frowns on any installer messing with the task bar (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2003/09/03/54760.aspx). I believe (tho I haven't looked closely) that we do have some special cleanup code to remove the existing shortcut. Because if you don't, then an uninstall/install (or upgrade) would leave the old pinned item pointing to nothing. (I see that with other programs I use)

 

Also note http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd378460(VS.85).aspx, specifically "A small set of applications are pinned by default for new installations. Other than these, only the user can pin further applications; programmatic pinning by an application is not permitted."

Yes, adding it programmatically is frowned upon but if I have manually pinned an application I expect it to stay pinned after upgrading.

 

I am on Windows 7.  I just installed the update today and was noticing the same problem with the taskbar; then figured out that if you locate Evernote in the start menu, right-click drag it to the Desktop to create a shortcut, you can pin THAT shortuct to the taskbar.  Hope this helps!

Great tip! I wish I didn't need to do this, but it is a good workaround. Note: You can create the shortcut anywhere, you don't need to clutter your desktop if you don't want to. I put my shortcut under "My Documents".

[J-Mac 19]

Microsoft frowns on any installer messing with the task bar (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2003/09/03/54760.aspx). I believe (tho I haven't looked closely) that we do have some special cleanup code to remove the existing shortcut. Because if you don't, then an uninstall/install (or upgrade) would leave the old pinned item pointing to nothing. (I see that with other programs I use)

 

Also note http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd378460(VS.85).aspx, specifically "A small set of applications are pinned by default for new installations. Other than these, only the user can pin further applications; programmatic pinning by an application is not permitted."

Just wanted to say that I have several programs that update on a regular basis that are pinned to my taskbar, and none of those lose their pinned status upon upgrade. I'm not certain but I believe that statement from the MSDN library refers to new programs automatically being pinned to the taskbar. And I agree with that concept. I wouldn’t want newly installed programs to self-pin to my taskbar! But existing installations that are already pinned and are being upgraded are different. I've already expressed my desire for those programs to be pinned. Also I think that Windows treats updates/upgrades to currently installed programs differently than new program installations. Even when they are uninstalled and then reinstalled, since many allow you to preserve the settings from the prior installation.

 

Thanks!

 

Jim

[Karel 0]

YES, please fix this! It's been annoying me for quite a time and I think it is really a silly bug.

[gazumped 11,652]

I know it's picky,  but if something is advertised to work in a particular way and doesn't - that's a bug.  That's bad and needs to be fixed as a priority.  

 

Other stuff that doesn't work as you expect but there were no promises ahead of time - that's something that got forgotten about in the grand scheme of things and will get added as soon as possible.

[garyo 0]

Microsoft frowns on any installer messing with the task bar (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2003/09/03/54760.aspx). I believe (tho I haven't looked closely) that we do have some special cleanup code to remove the existing shortcut. Because if you don't, then an uninstall/install (or upgrade) would leave the old pinned item pointing to nothing. (I see that with other programs I use)

 

Also note http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd378460(VS.85).aspx, specifically "A small set of applications are pinned by default for new installations. Other than these, only the user can pin further applications; programmatic pinning by an application is not permitted."

I have several other apps that don't disappear from the taskbar on updates - they stay pinned where I left them.

Evernote also deletes itself from being pinned to the Start menu; basically it won't stay anywhere I put it (well, except on the desktop, but I can never see that.)

In fact, even if I open it repeatedly from the Start menu so it shows up in the frequently-used apps list, and then update... it's gone from there too!  WTF!  No other app does that.

 

This is my #1 (ok, actually #2 -- lack of proper styles is #1) gripe with Evernote!  I'm always skeptical to update it because I won't remember to re-pin it, and then it won't be there when I need it -- which is pretty much the whole point of EN.

 

(Doesn't it strike you as odd that you say MS doesn't want you messing with the task bar... so that's exactly what you do to remove the shortcut?!)

 

PLEASE FIX THIS!

[jefito 5,589]

It's always there when I need it because 1) it's set to start on Windows login, and 2) it's always running, and 3) it stays pinned in the notification area and is set to always show. Different strokes, I guess...

[htjunkie 1]

Jeff, this is not helpful. We're talking about the Windows taskbar, not the notification area. Maybe you found a workaround and it's working for you, but that doesn't solve the problem we all have here. Every single time Evernote updates (several times a month) we have to RE-pin Evernote to the taskbar. It's retarded. In my taskbar, I have:

• firefox
• thunderbird
• notepad++
• all the adobe creative suite icons
• quicken

All of these programs get updated all the time as well, but NONE of them gets un-pinned in the process.

As a matter of fact, I haven't experienced this unpinning behavior with ANY OTHER program. This is unique to Evernote.

 

PLEASE. FIX. IT.

[Gogster 0]

+1 for this.

 

Extremely irritating bug.

[miniboons1 0]

+1 

 

Amazing how long this thread has been going.

[Joel2nd 0]

Are you EVER going to fix it EVERNOTE?!? We should call it NEVERNOTE!

[QueenTimely 1]

I think this is related:  my Evernote icon pins to the taskbar BUT WON'T OPEN FROM THERE.  We live in a time when things like this are meant to be taken for granted when you're dealing with services like Evernote.  I agree:  Nevernote.  

 

[Ross_ 0]

Evernote,

 

I think it is in your best interest to fix this bug.  Out of sight, out of mind.  For marginal users, like myself, I'll forget to open evernote if I can't see the icon.

 

Thanks for the great product!

[Ahhzz 0]

Here we are again, another update, another loss of pinned program on taskbar. Why is this so hard for the team to figure out? Hundreds of hundreds of programs manage to perform updates without falling off of the taskbar, why can't Evernote follow the crowd on that one? And please, no more mess about the cleanup code. If I take the ntoepad executable, and rename it calc.exe, the shortcut for Calculator opens Notepad!! You're just replacing the SAME-NAMED file with a newer one, and no "cleanup" is necessary!

 

 

[The Quahian 0]

I also would like this to be fixed. Thank you. 

[HappyFunBall 0]

Evernote, this has been going on for years, and this is the ONLY app I have in Windows that does this.  PLEASE FIX IT!  

[gustavgi 308]

I'm pretty sure that this "bug" is connected to the Bootstrapper error which started to occur and prevented new update-installations back in March 2013. The necessary solution seem to have been to have the Windows installation do a more invasive clean-up of the earlier installation.

[jklmnopedia 5]

 

I like having Evernote pinned to my taskbar for easy access. However, everything I update, its icon disappears from the taskbar. It is a minor annoyance, but it would be great if it would stay there.

 +1000. This. A thousand times this.

 

 

Microsoft frowns on any installer messing with the task bar (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2003/09/03/54760.aspx). I believe (tho I haven't looked closely) that we do have some special cleanup code to remove the existing shortcut. Because if you don't, then an uninstall/install (or upgrade) would leave the old pinned item pointing to nothing. (I see that with other programs I use)

 

How's that? Unless Evernote's application name changes or its file path changes, the "old" pinned item will still point to something. For those who manually pin Evernote to the taskbar, it is most likely pointing to C:\Program Files (x86)\Evernote\Evernote\Evernote.exe unless Evernote is intervening and doing something else and pointing to what, the registry? C:\Users\%user%\AppData\Local (or Roaming)?

 

Jeff, this is not helpful. We're talking about the Windows taskbar, not the notification area. Maybe you found a workaround and it's working for you, but that doesn't solve the problem we all have here. Every single time Evernote updates (several times a month) we have to RE-pin Evernote to the taskbar. It's retarded. In my taskbar, I have:

• firefox
• thunderbird
• notepad++
• all the adobe creative suite icons
• quicken

All of these programs get updated all the time as well, but NONE of them gets un-pinned in the process.

As a matter of fact, I haven't experienced this unpinning behavior with ANY OTHER program. This is unique to Evernote.

 

PLEASE. FIX. IT.

With the exception of Quicken being Quickbooks and the addition of Chrome > surfing (Firefox > dev), our task bars are otherwise identical!

[Ross_ 0]

I may have found my issue, but this is subject to the next upgrade event.

 

When I right click the icon and go to its properties:

 

I see:

 

Notice the versioning info -- I think this is the issue.  I originally pinned this guy to my taskbar by searching for it in the start menu, right clicking on the evernote icon that it found, and pinning to the taskbar.

 

However, if I navigate directly to C:\Program Files (x86)\Evernote\Evernote\ , right click Evernote.exe, and pin to taskbar, then clicking on the icon and looking at the properties does not seem to have version info:

 

 

Maybe this is the issue.  Next time, Windows may not nuke the pinned item because it no longer has any version number associated with the link.

 

 

[SebR 146]

You may have get something because I used the first method previously and the icon disappeared on updates.

It didn't on the last update. I don't know why but I almost sure I pinned it differently.

[jklmnopedia 5]

Let's hope so! I know I've tried this with iTunes, another task bar hater, but I had no luck three or four years ago.* However, in looking at iTunes again, I notice that it's target location remains the same whether pinning from the Start Menu or from creating a shortcut from the exe and pinning that to the task bar. I'm pretty sure I've tried this with Evernote in the past. I'm just hoping that my memory is foggy or that Evernote allowed the target location to change as it is doing now.

 

*No more need for iTunes now that Google Music's "Feeling Lucky" mixes have come along, they just get me.

[dconnet 529]

 

Microsoft frowns on any installer messing with the task bar (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2003/09/03/54760.aspx). I believe (tho I haven't looked closely) that we do have some special cleanup code to remove the existing shortcut. Because if you don't, then an uninstall/install (or upgrade) would leave the old pinned item pointing to nothing. (I see that with other programs I use)

 

How's that? Unless Evernote's application name changes or its file path changes, the "old" pinned item will still point to something. For those who manually pin Evernote to the taskbar, it is most likely pointing to C:\Program Files (x86)\Evernote\Evernote\Evernote.exe unless Evernote is intervening and doing something else and pointing to what, the registry? C:\Users\%user%\AppData\Local (or Roaming)?

 

 

Because the MSI uninstall process cleans up the shortcut (during RemoveShortcuts). During an upgrade, the old product is uninstalled and then the new one is installed. (If you know MSI terminology, we schedule RemoveExistingProducts before InstallInitialize)

 

When you pin the app, we do not intervene. The _only_ API Microsoft provides for interfacing with a pinned item is IStartMenuPinnedList::RemoveFromList. I think that name is descriptive enough that it's obvious what it does...

 

The _only_ legal way to get the shortcut to stick on upgrade is to change the installer to first do an install and then uninstall the old product. This has it's own set of issues, especially in an already released product.

 

Bottom line, this is not going to change unless Microsoft changes msiexec.

[htjunkie 1]

Oh, so I guess 90% of software developers are in the wrong then? The whole Adobe Creative Suite, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chrome, virtually any program except Evernote and iTunes manage to keep the icon pinned. And no, there's no need to uninstall the old version for those programs either. I don't think it's msiexec that needs to change, I think it's your attitude. You are abrasive, condescending and in denial.

[jklmnopedia 5]

Because the MSI uninstall process cleans up the shortcut (during RemoveShortcuts). During an upgrade, the old product is uninstalled and then the new one is installed. (If you know MSI terminology, we schedule RemoveExistingProducts before InstallInitialize)

 

When you pin the app, we do not intervene. The _only_ API Microsoft provides for interfacing with a pinned item is IStartMenuPinnedList::RemoveFromList. I think that name is descriptive enough that it's obvious what it does...

 

The _only_ legal way to get the shortcut to stick on upgrade is to change the installer to first do an install and then uninstall the old product. This has it's own set of issues, especially in an already released product.

 

Bottom line, this is not going to change unless Microsoft changes msiexec.

 

 

Ah, that makes sense. Thank you.

 

I do see a lot of programs on my machine that do do the uninstall afterwards. Some are not pretty.

[dconnet 529]

Oh, so I guess 90% of software developers are in the wrong then? The whole Adobe Creative Suite, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chrome, virtually any program except Evernote and iTunes manage to keep the icon pinned. And no, there's no need to uninstall the old version for those programs either.

 

You misunderstand. When you upgrade an existing installation, the old version is uninstalled (I'm not talking about an explicit uninstall by the user). That is the phase during which the shortcut is cleaned up. That's how msiexec works. The programs you mention may very well be scheduling the removal after the install. Or they may be doing "bad" things.

 

Unless we can figure out how to safely to an upgrade where we first install and then uninstall, this behavior will not change. We have no plans to reverse engineer how MS stores the shortcuts (yes, I know where they live) and perform undocumented/unsupported actions that are sure to cause issues in future versions of Windows.

[Ross_ 0]

Thanks for the reply dconnet.  I realize we're just a small group of users who care about this specific behavior and that you need to prioritize your bug and feature requests according to demand.

 

Have you done a cohort analysis for new users that install the product a week or so before an upgrade?  After an upgrade is pushed out, does usage of very new evernote users drop dramatically, beyond normal, non-upgrade fall off?  If so, you might have an onboarding issue here that you're not aware of.

[Leigh Riffel 0]

 

Oh, so I guess 90% of software developers are in the wrong then? The whole Adobe Creative Suite, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chrome, virtually any program except Evernote and iTunes manage to keep the icon pinned. And no, there's no need to uninstall the old version for those programs either.

 

You misunderstand. When you upgrade an existing installation, the old version is uninstalled (I'm not talking about an explicit uninstall by the user). That is the phase during which the shortcut is cleaned up. That's how msiexec works. The programs you mention may very well be scheduling the removal after the install. Or they may be doing "bad" things.

 

Unless we can figure out how to safely to an upgrade where we first install and then uninstall, this behavior will not change. We have no plans to reverse engineer how MS stores the shortcuts (yes, I know where they live) and perform undocumented/unsupported actions that are sure to cause issues in future versions of Windows.

 

 

I don't think htjunkie misunderstands at all.  It seems you are saying that it is the MS installers fault that it works this way and Evernote doesn't care enough about this problem to resolve it.  That is a valid answer, just not the one we were hoping for.   Apparently there are quite a few other companies that went the extra mile to honor the user's system despite the bug in the MS installer.

[offbelay 1]

I too find it incredibly frustrating that updating EN causes my taskbar icon to disappear. And I agree with Leigh Riffel and htjunkie that it seems pretty pathetic that every other app I use that is pinned seems to have figured out a way but EN can't.  And whether you meant it that way or not dconnet, you did come across as a bit abrasive and condescending.  Please understand, you have frustrated users here.

[gazumped 11,652]

3 hours ago, offbelay said:

I too find it incredibly frustrating that updating EN causes my taskbar icon to disappear. And I agree with Leigh Riffel and htjunkie that it seems pretty pathetic that every other app I use that is pinned seems to have figured out a way but EN can't.  And whether you meant it that way or not dconnet, you did come across as a bit abrasive and condescending.  Please understand, you have frustrated users here.

Not sure how many frustrated users there still are,  because the last post prior to yours in this thread was 2 years ago.since which there seems to have been a resounding silence on this issue.

Certainly in all my updates since then my icon has remained firmly in place.  If you're now having problems here,  maybe a support request or a tweet to @EvernoteHelps may be a good place to start?

[mikestockman 0]

I last posted to this thread in 2013. It's 2017 now and, when I upgrade Evernote, the icon I so carefully pinned to my taskbar vanishes and I have to dig Evernote out of the Start menu when I want to launch it.

I will follow the advice of filing a support request, if I haven't already (over four years, who can remember?) but honestly, if Evernote as a corporation doesn't read its own forum, why have it?

[Ross_ 0]

I now skip the upgrades and the icon stays.

[gazumped 11,652]

6 hours ago, mikestockman said:

if Evernote as a corporation doesn't read its own forum, why have it?

This is a (mainly) user-supported forum for general tech and usage queries.  Evernote developers do read the posts,  but not with any urgency - they're working on global fixes for ongoing issues and signs of possible major bugs,  not individual tech support.  This isn't an alternate way to report a fault and get individual assistance. 

[skqr 0]

This is a years old bug they should have looked into by now. They keep asking us to upgrade our subscriptions, we should expect simple things like these, reported by the community, to be fixed.