Pin to taskbar icon gets (2) appended

Question

After upgrading from Vista to Windows 7, I find that I cannot Pin the application "Shiretoko (64-bit)" to the taskbar without it getting a label of "Shiretoko (64-bit) (2)". I don't have any other icons on my taskbar with a similar name. I've tried unpinning it and re-pinning it. I've uninstalled and reinstalled Shiretoko (with a restart in between), but the pinned icon name always gets the (2) appended.

I can pin "Shiretoko (Safe Mode) (64-bit)" and it pins without the (2), so the problem seems to be unique to the normal-mode icon.

How can I fix this situation? It's only a minor annoyance, but I don't see how I can correct it. Where is the configuration for these pinned icons stored?

Edit: If I try to edit the properties for the pinned shortcut and rename it to the desired name, it gets renamed with a (3) appended, indicating that there must be something using the desired name.

Answer 1

After some research, I found a hidden folder

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

I had searched around here, thinking that Quick Launch and Taskbar pinning were very much the same, but I hadn't seen it because it was hidden. In that folder, there was a shortcut with the desired name. Why that shortcut didn't appear on the taskbar, I don't know. I deleted that shortcut, then re-pinned the application, and it now appears with the correct name.

Answer 2

You could create a desktop icon, make sure that it's called what you want or change it to what you want. Then right click on the desktop icon and choose "pin to taskbar". Or drag it to the taskbar.

I suspect that when you create the desktop icon, it'll still be called "Shiretoko (64-bit) (2)". In that case it looks like you have two Shiretoko installations, or that the recent installation is named as such due to a leftover folder from a previous installation.