Two Spyder icons on Windows taskbar

[pscobey]

Description

What steps will reproduce the problem?

Despite trying several Google-suggested solutions, updating Spyder, and removing/readding the Spyder icon to the Windows 10 taskbar I have been unable to prevent the appearance of the second Spyder icon when I start Spyder, which is particularly annoying given that I have a two-layer taskbar! Any help getting rid of that second icon would be much appreciated as I am constantly having to switch between programs while teaching online.

Versions

• Spyder version: 5.4.2 (conda)
• Python version: 3.9.16 64-bit
• Qt version: 5.15.2
• PyQt5 version: 5.15.7
• Operating System: Windows 10

Dependencies

# Mandatory:
atomicwrites >=1.2.0          :  1.4.0 (OK)
chardet >=2.0.0               :  4.0.0 (OK)
cloudpickle >=0.5.0           :  2.0.0 (OK)
cookiecutter >=1.6.0          :  1.7.3 (OK)
diff_match_patch >=20181111   :  20200713 (OK)
intervaltree >=3.0.2          :  3.1.0 (OK)
IPython >=7.31.1;<9.0.0       :  8.12.0 (OK)
jedi >=0.17.2;<0.19.0         :  0.18.1 (OK)
jellyfish >=0.7               :  0.9.0 (OK)
jsonschema >=3.2.0            :  4.17.3 (OK)
keyring >=17.0.0              :  23.13.1 (OK)
nbconvert >=4.0               :  6.5.4 (OK)
numpydoc >=0.6.0              :  1.5.0 (OK)
paramiko >=2.4.0              :  2.8.1 (OK)
parso >=0.7.0;<0.9.0          :  0.8.3 (OK)
pexpect >=4.4.0               :  4.8.0 (OK)
pickleshare >=0.4             :  0.7.5 (OK)
psutil >=5.3                  :  5.9.0 (OK)
pygments >=2.0                :  2.11.2 (OK)
pylint >=2.5.0;<3.0           :  2.16.2 (OK)
pylint_venv >=2.1.1           :  2.3.0 (OK)
pyls_spyder >=0.4.0           :  0.4.0 (OK)
pylsp >=1.7.1;<1.8.0          :  1.7.1 (OK)
pylsp_black >=1.2.0           :  1.2.1 (OK)
qdarkstyle >=3.0.2;<3.1.0     :  3.0.2 (OK)
qstylizer >=0.2.2             :  0.2.2 (OK)
qtawesome >=1.2.1             :  1.2.2 (OK)
qtconsole >=5.4.0;<5.5.0      :  5.4.0 (OK)
qtpy >=2.1.0                  :  2.2.0 (OK)
rtree >=0.9.7                 :  1.0.1 (OK)
setuptools >=49.6.0           :  65.6.3 (OK)
sphinx >=0.6.6                :  5.0.2 (OK)
spyder_kernels >=2.4.2;<2.5.0 :  2.4.2 (OK)
textdistance >=4.2.0          :  4.2.1 (OK)
three_merge >=0.1.1           :  0.1.1 (OK)
watchdog >=0.10.3             :  2.1.6 (OK)
zmq >=22.1.0                  :  23.2.0 (OK)

# Optional:
cython >=0.21                 :  None (NOK)
matplotlib >=3.0.0            :  3.7.1 (OK)
numpy >=1.7                   :  1.23.5 (OK)
pandas >=1.1.1                :  1.5.3 (OK)
scipy >=0.17.0                :  1.10.1 (OK)
sympy >=0.7.3                 :  1.11.1 (OK)

[ccordoba12]

Hey @pscobey, thanks for reporting. I thought we have already fixed this problem, but it seems that's not the case.

@dalthviz, do you remember about this problem? I think you took a look at it before, right?

[dalthviz]

Checking seems like this is working for the standalone Windows installer and a issue about the behavior was closed as part of a PR fixing but only for the Windows installer (#14219). So seems like the issue remains if you are using conda. In the initial issue (#1983) seems like the conclusion was that you need to set a AppUserModelID for the shortcut (which is something that requires admin privileges?).

[ccordoba12]

Ok, I see. Thanks @dalthviz for your clarifying comment. Could it be possible to add an entry to one of our menus to call AppUserModelID on Spyder's link file in admin mode?

@mrclary, I think we also need to add to this our new Windows installer so that it has feature parity with the current one. So, another option would be to check if menuinst can handle this (that way it'd work for Spyder, Napari and any other application).

[mrclary]

@mrclary, I think we also need to add to this our new Windows installer so that it has feature parity with the current one. So, another option would be to check if menuinst can handle this (that way it'd work for Spyder, Napari and any other application).

I don't recall seeing this issue on my Windows VM with the conda-based installers. I'll look again to be sure, but if I am correct then I think menuinst may already handle this.

[mrclary]

Okay, I do see both icons with the conda-based installer on my Windows VM, so menuinst has not addressed this.

@jaimergp, is it possible for menuinst to address this, or is this handled by an nsis template that we should provide? As an aside, should menuinst prevent cmd windows from opening when launching applications from the shortcut in Windows?

[dalthviz]

Could it be possible to add an entry to one of our menus to call AppUserModelID on Spyder's link file in admin mode?

Not sure to be honest, we will need to check. Seems like some info in the original issue is available but it requires not only admin privileges but also restarting explorer.exe (or restarting you PC) and also knowing the location of the shortcut (which can vary depending on the installation I think? 🤔 ) : #1983 (comment)

Just in case, for the Windows installer with pynsist the pinging was achived by adding this to the nsis template (if I understand correctly what was done there):
https://github.com/dalthviz/spyder/blob/739873b8e0d1aa6df94d41ec17575eb9d1c8260e/installers/Windows/assets/nsist/spyder.nsi#L113-L114

[mrclary]

Just in case, for the Windows installer with pynsist the pinging was achived by adding this to the nsis template (if I understand correctly what was done there): https://github.com/dalthviz/spyder/blob/739873b8e0d1aa6df94d41ec17575eb9d1c8260e/installers/Windows/assets/nsist/spyder.nsi#L113-L114

For our new conda-based installers, I think we can use an nsis template, so we may be able to use this. But I don't know how to address this issue for standard conda installations.

[ccordoba12]

Thanks for looking into this @mrclary. I think doing it for our Windows installer is fine for now.

[jaimergp]

Okay, I do see both icons with the conda-based installer on my Windows VM, so menuinst has not addressed this.

@jaimergp, is it possible for menuinst to address this, or is this handled by an nsis template that we should provide? As an aside, should menuinst prevent cmd windows from opening when launching applications from the shortcut in Windows?

We can add some code in menuinst for this. Can you open an issue in conda/menuinst with the full context? I'll address it at some point, but we have other feature requests (URL / file type association) in the roadmap first 😬

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Edit: Added issue conda/menuinst#127