Starting Program Creates Shortcut

LifeEZrB4Win10 · 05 Oct 2022

Okay... here's a good one for ya's. And my apologies in advance for the length of this post

I have Amazon Prime. A couple days ago, I logged in, tried to go to "Music Library," and was met with something about downloading a music app. Since it became apparent that I could not just go to my collection of music or choose from some random Amazon playlist like I could before (yes, it's been a while), I downloaded and installed Amazon Music for PC. Seemed there was no getting around it.

I have Classic Shell installed on a Windows 10 laptop. I prefer the "classic" start button so that I can arrange things the way I want, the way I always have. I've never utilized Windows' default start button set-up, and began using Classic Shell when MS did away with the old classic style start button and menu.

I have a folder in the Start Menu called "Viewers & Players." This is where I put all shortcuts for music and video players and image viewers. So naturally, after installing Amazon Music, I put the shortcut in that Start Menu folder.

Now...here's the crazy part. Everytime I go to Start > Programs > Viewers & Players and clik on Amazon Music [Fig 1] to open the console, Amazon Music puts a shortcut in the Start Menu [Fig 2]

I have NEVER experienced anything like this before. Anyone have any ideas on how to stop this?
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Couldn't figure out how to edit system info in profile ....
Computer Type: Laptop
Manufacturer: Acer NITRO5
Model: Nitro AN517-52
OS: Windows 10, Vs 21H2 (OS Build 19044.2006)
Browser: Firefox
Antivirus: Avira Security (free vs)

Starting Program Creates Shortcut-latest-image.jpg

dalchina · 05 Oct 2022

Annoying behaviour.. you could, I suppose, by way of an act of vengeance, have your shortcut shown on the right luanch a small script (2 lines?) which
a. launches Amazon Music
b. deletes the unwanted shortcut
(!)

Reminds me of the way some program updates create unwanted start menu shortcuts in this manner.

LifeEZrB4Win10 · 09 Oct 2022

Hello, dalchina, and thank you for your reply. Unfortunately, I know nothing about scripts, and so neither understand what you are recommending, nor how to go about it.

dalchina said:

Reminds me of the way some program updates create unwanted start menu shortcuts in this manner.

I wish this was just a simple case of a program creating a shortcut upon installation - those can be easily deleted, never to be seen again unless I choose to create another one. But this situation...well, I won't say it's maddening. Yet. It IS, however, the principle of the thing!!

I guess I'm getting set in my ways. The illustration above does not tell the whole story. When Amazon adds that shortcut back into the Start menu, it causes that menu to reposition. When I go to open a program, out of habit, I am used to going in one direction, and the shift causes me to have to re-group and take a moment to find what I came after. I'm used to zigging, and Amazon is causing me (forcing me) to zag.

Anywhooooo... could you go into a little more detail as to how to accomplish this assassination attempt? LOL

dalchina · 09 Oct 2022

Hi,
You could do this with a .bat file in 3 lines... the first two would be (example)
@echo off
start C:\Windows\Notepad.exe

Try that and double click the bat file- should launch notepad. Ok great.
Now change
C:\Windows\Notepad.exe
to the path for Amazon Music and double click the bat file - Should launch Amazon music.

Now add the DEL command to delete the shortcut:
Batch Script - Deleting Files

Now put the bat file somewhere safe and convenient (not your desktop) and put a shortcut to it in your start menu in the Start-up folder.
=================================================
I would prefer to use Autohotkey (free) - search, download, install as usual.

It has excellent help- you can create a one line script as a text file and run that immediately.

For example, to launch Amazon music I'd use this command:
Run / RunWait - Syntax & Usage | AutoHotkey

Simple example of that to launch notepad:

Run, C:\Windows\Notepad.exe

I've attached the file for you (zipped).

Inside is
Run notepad.ahk

When Autohokey is installed, simply double click it and it will launch notepad.

Change
C:\Windows\Notepad.exe
to the path for Amazon Music and double click it.

Great- it launches Amazon Music.
That's the first of two lines you need- that exercise also establishes confidence.

Now you need a line to delete the shortcut.

See
FileDelete - Syntax & Usage | AutoHotkey

Example:
FileDelete, C:\temp files\*.tmp

Just replace
C:\temp files\*.tmp

with something appropriate that deletes the shortcut file you don't want.

Remember, you can comment out the first line whilst testing it by putting a ; before run or create a separate .shk file just to test this command.

Then you can compile the .ahk file to create a .exe ( simply rt click it, click Compile)
Now put the exe somewhere safe and convenient (not your desktop) and put a shortcut to it in your start menu in the Start-up folder
C:\Users\<your user profile foldername>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup