How to make Eclipse behave well in the Windows 10 taskbar and program search?

This is an updated version of icyitscold's answer that doesn't require uninstalling/reinstalling eclipse.

1) Unpin any eclipse icons

2) Run "eclipse.exe -clean" to clear the cache and then close eclipse

3) Modify ./plugins/org.eclipse.epp.package.xxxxx/plugin.xml
The folder varies based on which version of eclipse you are using: j2ee, java, c++ etc.
Change the appName property - call it "MyEclipse" or something.

4) Edit the eclipse.ini to add:

-vm
C:/Program Files/Java/jdk1.8.0/jre/bin/server/jvm.dll

Or wherever your JDK is before the line:

--launcher.appendVmargs

5) Run eclipse and open a workspace, pin the eclipse icon after it's loaded.


Credit to icyitscold, Ruslan Gainutdinov, Timo Kinnunen


Fix for Eclipse Neon + Oxygen + Photon + 2019‑06

This was pretty simple 2 step process, no editing required.

  1. Close all Eclipse instances and unpin the non-working icon

  2. Open up Eclipse. DO NOT PIN yet. Select a workspace, let the main Eclipse window load. Pin that (right click on the icon -> Pin to taskbar).

That worked perfectly for me.


The answer was staring me in the face all along - at least for the taskbar. Full credit to Timo Kinnunen who had already posted this workaround in the in the bugzilla report

  1. Edit the plugin.xml file of your selected Eclipse version ("product") and erase the following line:

This should be done before starting the installation for the first time, because the property value gets cached and the change won't have effect before the cache is cleared. The correct file to edit varies:

  • \plugins\org.eclipse.sdk_4.4.0.v20140123-1600
  • \plugins\org.eclipse.epp.package.standard_2.1.0.20131103-0830
  • \plugins\org.eclipse.epp.package.jee_4.5.0.20150621-1200
  1. Edit eclipse.ini to add these lines at the end before the line --launcher.appendVmargs, add this:

    -vm "C:/Program Files/Java/jdk1.8.0/jre/bin/server/jvm.dll"

This causes the JVM to be launched in the same process as eclipse.exe rather than as a child process and avoids the intricacies of Host Processes with AppUserModelIDs.

  1. Launch Eclipse by double-clicking eclipse.exe. Only once the workspace is open select "Pin this program to taskbar" from the taskbar icon.