How to run desktop Google Chrome from start menu in Windows 8

Question

I installed Google Chrome in Windows 8 some time ago. Today I noticed, that when I start Chrome from start menu it starts metro version of Chrome. I can only start desktop version from pinned icon in taskbar. How am I supposed to run it in desktop mode if I unpin it from a taskbar?

Solution

A simple shortcut to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe on the desktop should do the trick. If anything it works for me.

EDIT: Sorry, didn't read the question close enough, doing this for the start menu works for me too.

EDIT2: A solution has been confirmed by the questioner: Navigating to C:\Users\<username> \AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application, selecting chrome.exe and choosing Pin to start from context menu does the trick.

Comments

[Admin]

I'm also having an issue with this, I can pin the desktop executable to the Start menu, but after a while it seems to just disappear. When I re-pin it I get chrome (2), chrome (3) etc., even though the re-pinned icon is the only option present.

[Dmitry Osinovskiy]

This is not different from taskbar way. I'd like to know about running it from start menu.

[Assile]

@DmitryOsinovskiy The link I have in my start menu is exactly the same shorcut, adding that to yours, does that fix your problem?

[Dmitry Osinovskiy]

Navigating to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application, selecting chrome.exe and choosing "Pin to start" from context menu seems to do the trick. Thanks.

[Assile]

@DmitryOsinovskiy Good to hear :) I'll add it to the answer as Solution.

[RichardOD]

This didn't quite work for me, as I didn't have that application folder. However in the end I did the same thing but from program files, so +1.

[Anders Fjeldstad]

Note that if Chrome is the default browser, it will always launch in Windows 8 mode, not desktop. There's a registry hack that works around this though: meta.superuser.com/a/5816/112163