Persistant Start Menu Shortcut

After recently upgrading to em Client Pro 7.2.33888.0 the install placed a shortcut link in:

C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs</user>

So the eM Client link appears in the root of my Start Menu.

This is quite common with installs, so after the upgrade I deleted the shortcut. However when I started eM Client it put it back. I deleted it again and again upon starting it the program put the shortcut back.

I have yet to find an option in settings to stop this annoying behaviour.

Has anyone found a way I can use to prevent eM Client from mandating how I organise my computer?

Have you tried menu/tools/settings/general and in the General section, uncheck “Run on system startup”?

Thanks for the suggestion but no, because I don’t want eM Client to start at system startup.

I just don’t want it to keep replacing the eM Client shortcut in my “start menu” (i.e. the menu that appears when you click the “Start” button in Windows and then “All Programs”) if I have deleted it.

It’s only a minor thing (that’s why I haven’t raised a support ticket yet) but it’s starting to ---- me off that companies do this and don’t let me organise my computer the way I want to.

The same has been happening to my PC’s. I’m sorry, but I uninstalled the app and went back to Outlook. Persistance (in general) in front of my eyes, is unacceptable. And the last thing I have time to do, is hack my way around the problem.

Is there any solution to this? I’m here for the same reason — the shortcut persists despite deletion.

I ended up submitting a ticket for this and got the following reply:

I have received a reply from our devs and apparently, my guess was correct - the Start menu shortcut is needed for System notifications to work.
So, with this feature enabled, it is a planned behavior.
But they also advised that if you disable System notifications (Menu>Tools>Settings>General>Notifications) the shortcut technically might not be returned on the next run of the program.

I received a similar response:

I’m afraid that is Microsoft’s requirement since version 7.2 introduces the support for Windows native notifications. To implement that feature, we had to change the application’s functionality and that is one of the changes related to implemented system notifications.
In case you will have any additional questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

It’s a really poor implementation of this requirement. I still have a shortcut in the Start Menu, it’s just not in the root folder. I’ve asked for this to be submitted as a bug for the next update a few days back, but no response yet.

Hello all,

I have to confirm my colleague’s answer that since this was presented as a part of the feature (system notifications) we can’t change the nature to bug and fix it - which would disable the notifications. However, I created a feature request with the idea of removing the start shortcut and it will be considered while developing the new version/s.

Russel

Does it require that the shortcut remain in the root directory of the Start Menu? I have my shortcut in a different directory, so having it recreated in the root means that I would have two shortcuts in my Start Menu.

Bumping this to ask whether the shortcut needs to remain in the root directory or whether the requirement is only for the shortcut to be anywhere in the Start Menu.

Root. I found that if you move it to a sub-folder emclient will recreate one in the root when you restart  it.
It would possibly have been quicker just to try it rather than wait for a reply.  As I have to disable tracking / adblocker software to access this forum many, like me, may not log in to post a reply.

That doesn’t answer my question, which is about the requirement and not the implementation. I’ve already stated that I have the shortcut in a folder other than the root.

My question is directed at Russel Markosky, which is why I commented on his reply and not the general thread.

OK. Good luck with that. I’ll just unfollow the thread so I don’t get the “bump” messages.

Yep, same problem here. Disabling system notifications doesn’t change this behaviour. 

It’s a small thing, but very annoying 

I just made a workaround… It’s not nice, but it works… 

I made a .bat file like this:


start /B

sleep 15

Delete
-------

Then, download nircmd , so you can easily alter the icon and run the bat file without a cmd prompt

Make a shortcut and edit the target to: C:\Windows\nircmd.exe exec hide

Change the icon to em-client icon, rename the shortcut em-client and use that shortcut to open the file.

15 secs after opening emclient, the bat file will delete the shortcut

Just use the following command from an elevated command prompt:

attrib C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs> “eM Client.lnk” +h +s

Then the icon is no longer visible and will not reappear.