Google Chrome soon will display a checkbox in the PWA installation prompt for the web apps to start automatically when the user logs in to the computer.
Microsoft is investing heavily in Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). Recently we covered their work about App shortcuts and new PWA features it is bringing to the Microsoft Edge browser.
Back in January this year, Microsoft prepped a prototype to run PWAs at OS startup on Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome OS Today, Google uploaded a commit for it to Chromium to bring “Desktop PWAs run on OS login” flag to Chrome Canary.
The flag when enabled, PWA install dialog will offer a checkbox for the app to start automatically when user signs in. Behind the scenes, the checkbox when selected, the app shortcut will be added to the Startup folder on Windows:
Make PWAs to auto-start on Windows Login
1. Ensure you’re using latest Chrome Canary 85.0.4158.1 or later
2. Visit chrome://flags page
3. Search for “Desktop PWAs run on OS login”, select Enabled from the dropdown
4. Restart your computer
5. Visit any Progressive Web App site in the browser, for instance, Twitter.
6. Click on PWA indicator + icon in the address bar
7. In the install app dialog shown, select the “Start app when you sign in to your computer.” and click “Install”.
Now if you restart your computer or launch a computer next time, PWA will automatically open after logging into Windows.
Tip: Use this command in the Run dialog to open the Startup folder on Windows: %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup.
Some questions still remain like when the user checks the checkbox in PWA install dialog, there is no UI offered to uncheck it within App Options, maybe this will come later.
As of now, if you don’t want PWAs to auto-start at Windows login, open the Startup folder by navigating to the location given above and delete the app shortcut.
Related articles:
New PWA features come to Edge in Windows 10 May 2020 Update
Microsoft Edge Canary gets support for PWA Icons on taskbar to show Shortcuts
Chrome PWAs are getting Shortcuts Menu to access common tasks