Can't Pin to Taskbar

[saroman0414]

In Windows 11, if I try to pin v.5.1.0.0 to the Taskbar, the pinned icon disappears when I exit the program. I can, however, pin it to the Start Menu.

[dking02]

I am running on Windows 11 23H2 and am able to pin PMPC-HU v5.1.0.0 to the taskbar without any problem.

The behavior you describe (icon disappears from taskbar after closing the app) is the expected behavior when an app is not pinned to the taskbar.

Are you sure you actually pinned PMPC-HU to the taskbar?

To verify ---
Launch PMPC-HU. The PMPC-HU icon should appear on the taskbar with a dot below the icon indicating it is open/running.
Right-click on the icon.
There should be an option "Unpin from taskbar" which verifies the app is already pinned.
However, if the option reads "Pin to taskbar", then select that option to actually pin the app to the taskbar.

[PhantomEarth]

Does anyone have a solution for this? I am having the same problem. When right-clicking the program icon, a shortcut, or the start menu entry the "Pin to Taskbar" option is missing from the context menu. You can right-click the taskbar icon when the program is running and select "Pin to Taskbar" there, but it does not actually pin. Right-clicking it again will still show the pin option, it never changes to "Unpin", and when you close the program it goes away (since it isn't pinned).

For now I've made a desktop shortcut, but I'd much rather have it on the taskbar for easy access. The old version could be pinned just fine before the "Home Updater" update.

[tennisace57]

I've running into the same issue since I upgraded to version 5. Usually unpin/re-pin works, but tonight it didn't. The icon changes to a blank white icon. When I open the icon properties where I could "change the icon" I got an error message indicating that the Windows cannot find the icon file.

[OldNavyGuy]

It's the Start menu icon the installer creates that's causing the issue.

I solved it by doing the following...

1. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Patch My PC\Patch My PC Home Updater (copy the patch, open a Run box, and paste).

2. Right-click on PatchMyPC-HomeUpdater.exe, select Send to, and then Desktop (create shortcut).

3. Navigate to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Patch My PC Home Updater

4. Delete the existing shortcut.

5. Drag and drop the shortcut you created on the Desktop to the same folder.

6. Reboot.

When back in Windows...
 
7. Start > Patch MyPC Home Updater > click to expand folder.

8. Right click on the exectuable and select More.

Pin to Taskbar will now display...click and create the pin.

Icon persists between sessions and reboots.

[tennisace57]

OldNavyGuy,

I also solved it last night, basically the same way you did, except for step 3, which I implement later this evening.

David

[tennisace57]

OldNavyGuy,

Step 3 wasn't necessary, as the preferred shortcut was already there, which more than likely explains why there wasn't an issue with the start menu icon - I have Patch My PC pinned in both locations.

It was the taskbar icon that was repeatedly an issue.

[OldNavyGuy]

OldNavyGuy,

Step 3 wasn't necessary, as the preferred shortcut was already there, which more than likely explains why there wasn't an issue with the start menu icon - I have Patch My PC pinned in both locations.

It was the taskbar icon that was repeatedly an issue.

Sounds like your case was different...

In our case, Pin to Taskbar was not displaying as a option on the Start menu for PMPC, so there was never a shortcut on the Taskbar to begin with.

PMPC 5.2.0.1 was clean installed today for the test.

An upgrade might act differently.

Either way, it's a defect that should be fixed.

[OldNavyGuy]

Another way to pin is dragging the app icon to the taskbar, which also did not work.

So Step 3 was necessary...for our case.

[dking02]

My Home Updater icon in the taskbar has occasionally changed to a blank file icon like noted above. Each time I have quickly fixed it by unpinning Home Updater from the taskbar and then repinning to the taskbar from a desktop shortcut pointing to the Home Updater executable in "C:\Program Files/Patch My PC". Since others are now confirming a problem and providing additional observations, I decided to a further look at the problem.

The Home Updater shortcut in the start menu supports "Change icon" and shows the display icon path.

On my installation of v5.2.0.1, the display icon path is:

    %SystemRoot%\Installer\{785FD549-AA92-4A67-BE1B-04F094D62808}\ModernHomeUpdater.ClientApp.exe

where %SystemRoot% = C:\Windows

The ClientApp.exe file presumably contains the icons and is probably the uninstaller program. This path agrees with the display icon path in the v5.2.0.1 program's uninstall data in the registry.

The OP's screenshot above where the file with the icon could not be found showed a different icon path:

    %SystemRoot%\Installer\{8D55754C-C0AE-4867-B2D2-7251144EE381}\\ModernHomeUpdater.ClientApp.exe

When I used a MSI viewer to examine the .msi installer files for updates to Home Updater that are saved in "C:\ProgramData\Patch My PC\Patch My PC Home Updater", I found that the GUID values in the icon path correspond to the Product Code of each update:

GUID 785FD549-AA92-4A67-BE1B-04F094D62808 identifies the installed product as Home Updater 5.2.0.1, which was released on 4 May 2025
GUID 8D55754C-C0AE-4867-B2D2-7251144EE381 identifies the installed product as Home Updater 5.2.0.0, which was released on 25 Apr 2025.

Assuming the screenshot in the OP's message of 8 May 2025 above was captured after 4 May 2025, he should have been running 5.2.0.1 and the icon path to a 5.2.0.0 installer file in his screenshot would have been invalid because that product had been removed and replaced with 5.2.0.1 update.

These symptoms would seem to point to an error in updating the Home Updater shortcuts in the start menu and taskbar with the new icon path when Home Updater self-updates via its scheduled task. I suspect shortcut to the Home Updater .exe file in "C:\Program Files\Patch My PC" does show the correct icon path which would explain its use in fixing the problem with the program shortcuts in start menu and task bar. The only occasional nature of the observation of the blank icon problem would also be consistent with the schedule of updates to the program.

[dking02]

Correction to my preceding response (#9):

In response #9, change "OP" (2 occurrences) to user "tennisace57" (ref. response #3).