Windows 11 programs pinned to the taskbar not opening

Dear Karl LÉOGNAN

Thank you for posting in the Microsoft community.

According to your description you can refer to the following options to fix this issue.

If you are a WINDOWS built-in application and their icons are not displayed correctly, you can use the WINDOWS iso fix solution.

So to give you the steps to repair and install WINDOWS, first of all, it is recommended that you backup your important data on your C drive to an external device

Download Windows 11 (microsoft.com)

Select Download tool now - perform Media creation tool - select Yes - select Accept - select Create installation media for another computer - select DVD ISO file - Save as local.

Execute the local WINDOWS.ISO file-right click-mount-select execute setup.exe-select don't use it for now-select keep personal files and settings-select Next-wait for the WINDOWS Repair installation to complete-reboot the WINDOWS computer.

For some tripartite programs,

You can reinstall the program by uninstalling it from the control panel. Often these problems are due to the loss of the associated icon file after you reset it. Re-installing the program will solve the problem.

I hope the above information can help you.

I look forward to your further reply.

Best Wish

Shawn.Z-MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Dear Karl LÉOGNAN

Thank you for posting in the Microsoft community.

According to your description you can refer to the following options to fix this issue.

If you are a WINDOWS built-in application and their icons are not displayed correctly, you can use the WINDOWS iso fix solution.

So to give you the steps to repair and install WINDOWS, first of all, it is recommended that you backup your important data on your C drive to an external device

Download Windows 11 (microsoft.com)

Select Download tool now - perform Media creation tool - select Yes - select Accept - select Create installation media for another computer - select DVD ISO file - Save as local.

Execute the local WINDOWS.ISO file-right click-mount-select execute setup.exe-select don't use it for now-select keep personal files and settings-select Next-wait for the WINDOWS Repair installation to complete-reboot the WINDOWS computer.

For some tripartite programs,

You can reinstall the program by uninstalling it from the control panel. Often these problems are due to the loss of the associated icon file after you reset it. Re-installing the program will solve the problem.

I hope the above information can help you.

I look forward to your further reply.

Best Wish

Shawn.Z-MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

The problem doesn't seem to be there. The programs in themselves works perfectly and the shortcuts themselves too, but the problem seems to be with where the taskbar search the shortcuts. The taskbar show the shortcuts that are in "%appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar" but seems to search the icons and informations in "%appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs", and seems to interpret the shortcuts as in "%appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs".

Sincerely, Karl LÉOGNANY

Today I got an update and... every pinned programs on the taskbar with the weird behavior just disapeared of the taskbar, so I tried to pin them back and... it has the same weird behavior. The shortcuts are still there in "%appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar", I think I'll move them elsewhere and then re-pin the programs manually.

Sincerly, Karl LÉOGNANY

Pinning back the programs manually solved the issue, but I'm still wondering what really produced it since at the beginning after moving back my back-up, there was no problem.

Sincerely, Karl LÉOGNANY

Dear Karl LÉOGNANY

I'm glad your issue has been resolved.

Most of the programs I've tested create shortcuts in the following path after fixing the taskbar.

“%appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar

But according to your description this could be a taskbar misdefinition issue caused by an update.

%appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

This path defines shortcuts to programs in the Start Menu.

So the problem may be due to Windows recognizing the shortcut to the search bar as a shortcut to the Start Menu.

I hope the above information will answer your questions.

Best Wish

Shawn.Z-MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist