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Desktop Icon Launcher for An App?

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Posted on 27 Jul 2018 17:33:29 by Community Power Pla...

Hi all,

What I am looking to do is to have a desktop icon for my app that will either launch my app in the Powerapps Studio desktop app, or in a Microsoft Edge window. I know how to make an icon/quick-launcher for mobile apps from the mobile powerapps, but I can't find out how to have the same functionality on Windows desktop.

The main reason for this is that I don't want users of my app to follow the link into whatever browser they are using (IE, Chrome) since there are performance issues on those browsers.

Thanks for any replies

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AW 123 on 14 Oct 2020 at 15:53:55

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Re: Desktop Icon Launcher for An App?

I found this option separately and Tibor4's response is a full solution. It will create a desktop (or anywhere) shortcut. We use it to auto-load the app on windows startup. You'd still need to create the ico image but that's not hard to do.
FUS 150 on 14 Oct 2020 at 14:36:23

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Re: Desktop Icon Launcher for An App?

I had a similar desire a while ago and what I learned was.

1) From the desktop applikation you can create icons on the startmeny... but that's not optimal unless you want normal users to download the desktop application.
2.1) Launch the app and click and drag the lock symbol to your desktop.
I learned this from another post and it works... but the downside is that all icons look the same.

2.2) And I just found a way to get the unique icons... but it was a long way.
I took a cutout with the icon where I had it (I used the save as page).
Then I uploaded to a free page where I converted the image to an ico-image.
Then I went in on the properties of the shortcut and changed the icon and got unique icons:

I would however never suggest this to the users... but it did work.

I think step 2 is perfect for most users who want a shortcut to the app on their desktop.
But I would love to see the apps own Icons instead of the Power app icon.

P.s. After I posted this I saw that my last two apps stole the same icon as number 3... so not a perfect solution and I would suggest change all icons or none.
Tibor4 21 on 21 Apr 2020 at 07:28:57

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Re: Desktop Icon Launcher for An App?

Create a shortcut to your desktop or where you want.
The location of the item is:
ms-apps:///providers/Microsoft.PowerApps/apps/YOURAPPLICATIONID

If you don't know how to get the application ID go to https://make.powerapps.com/apps

Click on the "more button" than Details

There will be a section called "App ID"

(Tested on Windows 10 v1909)
AW 123 on 06 Mar 2020 at 13:07:46

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Re: Desktop Icon Launcher for An App?

I've been unable to directly add an app to the desktop (also a common, reoccurring need for me). I do have a workaround for the desktop option (depending on the scenario) and a solution for opening in Edge.

For the desktop shortcut, I Pin the App to the Start Menu, then set Windows to tablet mode. I remove all unnecessary shortcuts from the Start Menu. This works well for systems designated to just run app(s). There are annoyances with running desktop apps in tablet mode, so this may not work for all occasions.

For opening an app in Edge only, you need to create a shortcut with the weblink in the parameter. It appears Edge doesn't easily run from it's executable, so it will work with the Start command. Create a desktop shortcut and paste the following - updating {appID} with your PowerApps application ID.

%windir%\system32\cmd.exe /c "start microsoft-edge:https://apps.powerapps.com/play/{appID}"
cholopa 62 on 03 Dec 2019 at 08:03:07

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Re: Desktop Icon Launcher for An App?

Hi:

I was succesfull in this achivement three orfour months ago, but now I don't remeber go I did it!!!

Can anyone help:

As far as I remeber I think I did it from powerapps studio. Doesn't it exist anymore?

When opening powerapps from start up menu, clickin the little points at the left of each application you can select to "dock to main page", but then you can not move the icon to the desktop...

What I have from three months ago is, in this directory:

C:\Users\cholo\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Aplicaciones de Chrome

Some shortcut to the applications, I think I created them from powerapps studio, but don'tremeber how I did it. 😞

Can anyone help?¿?
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Community Power Pla... on 30 Jul 2018 at 15:29:01

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Re: Desktop Icon Launcher for An App?

Yeah, unfortunate that no feature exists to link from desktop.

EDIT: It looks like from the powerapps studio desktop, you can actually pin the app to the start menu which creates a tile to start the app. This is close enough to what I wanted.
PowerApps Studio->app details->pin to Home
v-xida-msft on 30 Jul 2018 at 03:10:48

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Re: Desktop Icon Launcher for An App?

Hi @Anonymous,

Do you want to create a Desktop Icon Launcher for your app?

If you want to create a Desktop Icon Launcher for your app, I afraid that there is no way to achieve your needs in PowerApps currently.

If you would like this feature to be added within PowerApps, please submit an idea to PowerApps Ideas Forum:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/PowerApps-Ideas/idb-p/PowerAppsIdeas

Best regards,

Kris