Please be gentle - I don't really do tech.
The one thing that I haven't been able to do on my work PC (W10), and really want to, is to put a shortcut on my taskbar to run a programme that sits on the network, not on my own machine. The machine just blanks me when I try to drag across a shortcut to it.
I wondered if could make a batch file (or, err, something) that could sit on my PC and that points to an exe elsewhere, then make a shortcut to the batch file and put that on the taskbar
Is this a goer ?
Would you be interested in one million Nigerion punds?
right click, Create a new shortcut, point it at the network location of the exe.
it’ll be really slow to load.
Running an exe off the network isn't really the done thing. Why can't you just copy it to your machine?
Easiest way to do it without getting all techie on you is to go to the application you want a shortcut to, right click on it and select 'pin to start'
That will put a 'shortcut' on your start menu. If you want it on your desktop you can just drag that icon from your start menu to the desktop.
It's not strictly the right way to do it but it's the easiest without getting you to copy network paths and such.
#EDIT : Same goes for getting it on the taskbar, drag from start menu to task bar.
Running an exe off the network isn’t really the done thing. Why can’t you just copy it to your machine?
There's very little we're allowed to do to our own machines, though batch files seem to be possible (there's one on there already). I can ask IT but they always have huge lead times and it's close to zero priority for the organisation
Chances are that your pc won’t let you create a batch file (despite there being one already) if your IT have it blocked it with FSRM or any one of a number of other tools that stop people creating batch files (or many many other file types). In any case it sounds like this is not the solution anyway.
As others have said a shortcut is probably what you’re after. You probably need the network path to the exe though as if you right click the exe and select create shortcut it will probably end up pointing to the physical path of the exe on the server and then won’t run on your machine ie C:\ProgramFiles\ProgramName\exeneme.exe and what you need is \\networklocation\exename.exe
Assuming of course that it is a standalone exe and will run without installing…..
What are you actually trying to run?
Run it.
Right-click on the icon for the running app on the Taskbar.
Click "pin to start."
duplicate
Keep losing replies to this gateway error
Haven't tried pinning it when it's running; will do. Very old lab reporting software (prob 1980s) - christ knows how they get it to run at all and maybe that's the nub of the problem. 20+ years ago we could just copy & paste the folder onto a new machine and it'd run but now that's gone to the network somehow
Funnily enough I had pretty much the same ask a few months back - the 'pin to start' worked okay, but the tech folk gave me a much better solution.
Hope it helps!
I believe the correct term is "Lolz" ?
- never gonna boot you up ?
Assuming of course that it is a standalone exe and will run without installing…..
What are you actually trying to run?
This is key - most apps will require a local install (or something like App-V) as the app will look for registry keys and DLLs etc. on the local system, it won't look at the file server's registry (or wherever the exe is located).
Is it a lack of admin rights that won't let you install/run it locally or are they blocking it via policy?
Do you access to RDS (remote desktop services) servers on the network that you could ask the app is installed onto (and run it from there)?
The OP asks about creating a taskbar icon to run the exe, but many of the replies are about how to actually run it. @scaredypants, your last reply suggests you run the exe from your machine at present, can you describe what you do to run it?
Very old lab reporting software (prob 1980s)
That raises more questions than it answers. Is it DOS based?
Are you able to provide a couple of screenshots? One of the app and one of the network location in Explorer?
20+ years ago we could just copy & paste the folder onto a new machine and it’d run but now that’s gone to the network somehow
Network or no, can you not still do that?
Is this not a problem for your IT department?
With my Security hat on,
Is there nothing else you can use instead? Something that old is potentially a huge security risk, and depending on your industry a lot of compliance regulations today stipulate that you cannot use unmaintained software.
