Removal of Shortcut Management
(NOTE:- This article has been updated 1st September 2023)
APPSANYWHERE 3.2+
Starting with AppsAnywhere 3.2, we will be removing the Shortcut management feature found in the Application edit screen for brand new installations. Following feedback from our customer base we have decided to continue to provide access to the feature for anyone upgrading from a version earlier than 3.2. The feature is deprecated and therefore we plan on removing the feature in a future release (version and date to be confirmed) but following feedback we are now giving a longer notice period for people to make alternative plans.
We have chosen to deprecate the feature for a number of reasons:
Shortcuts take the user out of AppsAnywhere
We want AppsAnywhere to provide the access users need to all their apps, and we want the experience to be the same across the board. Some of our features - such as smart delivery method prioritization, and organizing apps into favourites, app lists and collections - are not available elsewhere.
Shortcuts do not reflect changes
When a shortcut is generated, its output is fixed. That means if a change is made to the underlying app or relevant general settings the shortcut is no longer correct, and in some cases can stop functioning.
They’re not available to all users
As a Windows and Cloudpaging-only feature, shortcuts don’t work for some of our customers. This becomes a bigger problem as more users choose a Mac as their primary device.
They create additional management overhead
Due to an issue in Windows with adding a shortcut, and the length of the text to paste into it, creating a shortcut manually in Windows won’t work when first created and will need to be edited, which isn’t clear.
Additionally, deploying shortcuts to managed devices requires GPO, SCCM, or similar technologies, as well as re-deployment if any changes occur.
We don’t recommend shortcuts to customers
We already discourage new customers from using the Shortcut management feature and have been for some time, and it creates an unnecessary burden for both implementations and support, who have to explain the issues shortcuts can cause.
What next?
Our driving force is always to make AppsAnywhere easier to use, and removing Shortcut management will allow us to simplify the experience and focus on other areas.
Existing shortcuts will continue to function as they have previously. As always we welcome your feedback, especially in the specific use cases that shortcuts can serve that no other implementation can.