Unpin app from taskbar, startmenu using Inno Setup - inno-setup

Question

I am developing an installer using Inno Setup targeting XP, Win7, 8. I need the app icon to be pinned to taskbar and the startmenu. So far I have been able to do that.
Now, when the user uninstalls this program, the pinned items should be unpinned. I haven't managed to find a solution to this.
Please guide.

Answer 1

You've said that you have used a function from this link. I assume the one from this post:
procedure zylPinAppToTaskbar(strPath, strApp: string);
var
vShell, vFolder, vFolderItem, vItemVerbs: Variant;
vPath, vApp: Variant;
i: Integer;
sItem: String;
h: LongInt;
szPinName: String;
filenameEnd : Integer;
filename : String;
strEnd : String;
begin
SetLength(szPinName, 255);
h := LoadLibrary(ExpandConstant('{sys}\Shell32.dll'));
LoadString(h, 5386, szPinName, 255);
FreeLibrary(h);
strEnd := #0;
filenameEnd := Pos(strEnd, szPinName);
filename := Copy(szPinName, 1, filenameEnd - 1);
if (Length(filename) > 0) then //WinXp or lower, no pin taskbar function
begin
vShell := CreateOleObject('Shell.Application');
vPath := strPath;
vFolder := vShell.NameSpace(vPath);
vApp := strApp;
vFolderItem := vFolder.ParseName(vApp);
vItemVerbs := vFolderItem.Verbs;
for i := 1 to vItemVerbs.Count do
begin
sItem := vItemVerbs.Item(i).Name;
if (sItem = filename) then
begin
// 63 63 72 75 6E 2E 63 6F 6D
vItemVerbs.Item(i).DoIt;
break;
end;
end;
end;
end;
That's really hacky way (which I wouldn't rely on). Let's focus now on what it actually does. The function loads the Shell32.dll library and reads from its string table the caption of the popup menu item that belongs to the Pin this program to taskbar feature (and stores it into the filename variable). Then it connects to Shell and creates the Folder object for the passed folder path (vFolder variable). For this folder object it then creates the FolderItem object (vFolderItem variable) and on this object iterates all the available verbs (vItemVerbs variable) and checks if the Name matches the one read from the Shell32.dll library. If it finds one, it invokes the action by the DoIt method and breaks the iteration.
Now if you know what the above code does, you can guess that the only thing you need to do to perform the unpin action is finding the caption of the popup menu item for that feature. I've looked into the string table of the Shell32.dll library and the Unpin this program from taskbar string has ID 5387, so the only thing to modify the above function for unpinning is changing this line:
// this magical 5386 value is the ID of the "Pin this program to taskbar"
// popup menu caption string in the Shell32.dll string table
LoadString(h, 5386, szPinName, 255);
To this:
// this magical 5387 value is the ID of the "Unpin this program from taskbar"
// popup menu caption string in the Shell32.dll string table
LoadString(h, 5387, szPinName, 255);
But I do not recommend that way. There is no official way to pin program to taskbar because that's been reserved for the user to decide.
As a bonus, I wrote the following wrapper for the above code:
[Code]
#ifdef UNICODE
#define AW "W"
#else
#define AW "A"
#endif
const
// these constants are not defined in Windows
SHELL32_STRING_ID_PIN_TO_TASKBAR = 5386;
SHELL32_STRING_ID_PIN_TO_STARTMENU = 5381;
SHELL32_STRING_ID_UNPIN_FROM_TASKBAR = 5387;
SHELL32_STRING_ID_UNPIN_FROM_STARTMENU = 5382;
type
HINSTANCE = THandle;
HMODULE = HINSTANCE;
TPinDest = (
pdTaskbar,
pdStartMenu
);
function LoadLibrary(lpFileName: string): HMODULE;
external 'LoadLibrary{#AW}#kernel32.dll stdcall';
function FreeLibrary(hModule: HMODULE): BOOL;
external 'FreeLibrary#kernel32.dll stdcall';
function LoadString(hInstance: HINSTANCE; uID: UINT;
lpBuffer: string; nBufferMax: Integer): Integer;
external 'LoadString{#AW}#user32.dll stdcall';
function TryGetVerbName(ID: UINT; out VerbName: string): Boolean;
var
Buffer: string;
BufLen: Integer;
Handle: HMODULE;
begin
Result := False;
Handle := LoadLibrary(ExpandConstant('{sys}\Shell32.dll'));
if Handle <> 0 then
try
SetLength(Buffer, 255);
BufLen := LoadString(Handle, ID, Buffer, Length(Buffer));
if BufLen <> 0 then
begin
Result := True;
VerbName := Copy(Buffer, 1, BufLen);
end;
finally
FreeLibrary(Handle);
end;
end;
function ExecVerb(const FileName, VerbName: string): Boolean;
var
I: Integer;
Shell: Variant;
Folder: Variant;
FolderItem: Variant;
begin
Result := False;
Shell := CreateOleObject('Shell.Application');
Folder := Shell.NameSpace(ExtractFilePath(FileName));
FolderItem := Folder.ParseName(ExtractFileName(FileName));
for I := 1 to FolderItem.Verbs.Count do
begin
if FolderItem.Verbs.Item(I).Name = VerbName then
begin
FolderItem.Verbs.Item(I).DoIt;
Result := True;
Exit;
end;
end;
end;
function PinAppTo(const FileName: string; PinDest: TPinDest): Boolean;
var
ResStrID: UINT;
VerbName: string;
begin
case PinDest of
pdTaskbar: ResStrID := SHELL32_STRING_ID_PIN_TO_TASKBAR;
pdStartMenu: ResStrID := SHELL32_STRING_ID_PIN_TO_STARTMENU;
end;
Result := TryGetVerbName(ResStrID, VerbName) and ExecVerb(FileName, VerbName);
end;
function UnpinAppFrom(const FileName: string; PinDest: TPinDest): Boolean;
var
ResStrID: UINT;
VerbName: string;
begin
case PinDest of
pdTaskbar: ResStrID := SHELL32_STRING_ID_UNPIN_FROM_TASKBAR;
pdStartMenu: ResStrID := SHELL32_STRING_ID_UNPIN_FROM_STARTMENU;
end;
Result := TryGetVerbName(ResStrID, VerbName) and ExecVerb(FileName, VerbName);
end;
And its possible usage, for pinning:
if PinAppTo(ExpandConstant('{sys}\calc.exe'), pdTaskbar) then
MsgBox('Calc has been pinned to the taskbar.', mbInformation, MB_OK);
if PinAppTo(ExpandConstant('{sys}\calc.exe'), pdStartMenu) then
MsgBox('Calc has been pinned to the start menu.', mbInformation, MB_OK);
And for unpinning:
if UnpinAppFrom(ExpandConstant('{sys}\calc.exe'), pdTaskbar) then
MsgBox('Calc is not pinned to the taskbar anymore.', mbInformation, MB_OK);
if UnpinAppFrom(ExpandConstant('{sys}\calc.exe'), pdStartMenu) then
MsgBox('Calc is not pinned to the start menu anymore.', mbInformation, MB_OK);

Answer 2

I was able to do it. Here's the code to pin and unpin from the startmenu and taskbar.
oShell := CreateOleObject('Shell.Application');
objFolder := oShell.Namespace(ExpandConstant('{localappdata}\My_Path'));
objFolderItem := objFolder.ParseName('MyApp.exe');
colVerbs := objFolderItem.Verbs();
for i := 0 to colverbs.count() do
begin
VerbName := lowercase(colverbs.item(i).name);
StringChangeEx(VerbName,'&','',true);
if (CompareText(Verbname, 'Pin to Start Menu') = 0) then
colverbs.item(i).DoIt
if (CompareText(Verbname, 'Pin to Taskbar') = 0) then
colverbs.item(i).DoIt
end;
Change the compare string to 'Unpin from Start Menu' and 'Unpin from Taskbar' at the time of unpinning.