Shortcuts don't work on PC

[Redhood]

I’m trying to change my internet browser from Chrome to Brave, but the Brave shortcuts I created for my desktop (unlike chromes shortcuts) don’t work, doesn’t open Brave. Can somebody please help?

[eljuno]

Hi @Redhood,
Can you provide more info?Like Brave version, OS, steps to reproduce, screenshot of the issue, etc.

This kind of info should be provided when you try to create a new thread. Providing more info will really help with support and troubleshooting.

Thanks

[Redhood]

Well, the brave version should be the latest one, I just installed it today, specifically 64-bit for windows was the one I downloaded and the tab ‘‘about brave’’ says: Version 0.62.51 Chromium: 73.0.3683.103 (Official Build) (64-bit).
About the OS: it’s an 64-bit Windows 10 Pro
I hope this helps

[eljuno]

@Redhood

but the Brave shortcuts I created for my desktop (unlike chromes shortcuts) don’t work

Can you elaborate more about this? Steps to reproduce the issue will be really helpful.

[Redhood]

When you want to create a shortcut, you go to the web page you want to save, once you’re in, you open the ‘‘customize and control brave’’ tab, go to ‘‘more tools’’ and select ‘‘create shortcut’’, this will open a mini tab so you can choose the name and an option to ‘‘open as window’’ (which it doesn’t matter, because whether you want to open as a window or not, neither of those options seem to work). Once you click on ‘‘create’’, the selected shortcut will open on the desktop to click on it and supposedly go directly to the page, which it doesn’t do. What it does, once you click on it, is that the arrow of the mouse has a load icon and then nothing happens, nothing at all.

[hiqamig]

look here, is work https://www.ghacks.net/2013/10/06/list-useful-google-chrome-command-line-switches/

but better use ubuntu, perfect work command line run. windaws shit .

[eljuno]

Got it! Thanks for the confirmation @Redhood.

It seems it’s a known issue. I added your +1 to the issue which can be tracked here https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/3750

Also, another user mentioned a “workaround” in the issue above. Can you try steps shown here https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/3750#issuecomment-480103072

[Redhood]

That actually solved the problem, thanks.
If I uninstall Chrome, would it still say chrome proxy or it would go directly to brave?

[eljuno]

I have no Chrome installed on my laptop, and after change it to brave.exe, it’s works well. For now, you may need to change the properties for every shortcut that you create.

[vschwid]

Any chance you know a temporary solution for macOS? I’m looked in the resources of the shortcuts it created but it nowhere refers to an executable / app on macOS that I could update. Thoughts?

[benmiller86]

For windows users the following PowerShell script will update all your shortcuts to point straight at Brave.exe rather than chrome_proxy.exe

$folder = $env:APPDATA + "\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Brave Apps"
$list = Get-ChildItem -Path $folder -Filter $fileName -Recurse | Where-Object { $_.Attributes -ne "Directory" } | select -ExpandProperty FullName
$from = "chrome_proxy"
$to = "Brave"

ForEach($lnk in $list)
{
  $obj = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell
  $link = $obj.CreateShortcut($lnk) 
  [string]$path = $link.TargetPath  
  [string]$path = [string]$path.Replace($from.tostring(),$to.ToString()) 
  $link.TargetPath = [string]$path 
  $link.Save() 
}