Sense creates two independent Taskbar icons

[#1]

This application seems to have non-standard Windows behavior when it comes to Windows 7 and the Taskbar. If I open Sense from the Start Menu it opens 3 different executables:

QlikSense.exe

QlikBrowser.exe

QlikBrowser.exe (two processes of the same name run concurrently)

Now the only running app in the taskbar is Qlik Sense desktop. If I pin this running app to the Taskbar (as I do for all frequently used apps) it will not launch properly from this icon the next time I use Sense. What happens is it will start two sessions of QlikBrowser.exe but QlikSense.exe is missing and no foreground window ever appears. I have to manually kill both QlikBrowser.exe processes.

I've found that I can pin the Start Menu shortcut to QlikSense.exe to the Taskbar and it will launch Sense properly. The problem is when I do this, it launches a separate Taskbar icon so now there is the icon I pinned from the Start Menu along with a new running session of Sense Desktop.

What is the point of this? All other Windows 7 apps that I've used (including QlikView Desktop) run the foreground session as part of the icon/shortcut that was pinned and not create a second icon for seemingly no reason. They way it works right now feels broken.

[Michael_Tarallo]

Hello Scott - I will let our product team know and update you ASAP.

Mike T

[#3]

Thank you. This is a minor issue with what seems to be a very nice product.

[Josh_Good]

Hi Scott,

The reason you are experience this behaviour has to do with the architecture of Qlik Sense.  The core product is designed as a server based product.  So in the background Qlik Sense Desktop is actually a small local server and a dedicated (Chromium) browser.  QlikSense.exe is the 'server' and QlikBrowser.exe is the browser.  Note, when running QlikSense you can also access it by directing your regular browser (e.g. FireFox) http://localhost:4848/hub.

In Summary, in order for Qlik Sense Desktop to work you must have two .exe's running. The core product (QlikSense.exe) and a browser (QlikBrowser.exe or you local web browser).  Since the only way to interact with QlikSense.exe is through a browser of some sort, QlikSense.exe runs in the background.

I hope that helps explain why Qlik Sense Desktop is setup this way.

-Josh

[#5]

Hi Josh,

Yes, thanks for the technical details and the localhost trick.

That makes sense but I would still ask what you advise for end users? After all, Sense seems to be aimed more towards ad-hoc end user cases than IT, so if I create Sense apps and share them with my team this issue may come up again as it behaves in a non-standard way. I'm sure I'm not the only one thrown off by this.

I have noticed that if I launch multiple QlikSense.exe server processes, they are properly terminated when the QlikBrowser.exe window is closed, which is great since as you said, there's no user UI for the server. So clearly there is communication between the two processes already. Perhaps the solution is as simple as launching the server if it is not running when a QlikBrower session is started? This way it would all run through a single icon on the Taskbar and everything would be peachy.

[Michael_Tarallo]

Hi Scott - I see that Josh provided the technical reasons as to why it is the way it is, I have sent an inquiry to the product team to understand if they have any improvements planned in this area. At the moment, the standard approach would be to use the Shortcut that we publish to the desktop. If I get an update, I will let you know immediately.

Regards,

Mike T

Qlik

[Michael_Tarallo · Accepted solution]

Hi Scott - I just confirmation that our product team is aware of the behavior and there are plans to improve this behavior.

If you have any questions please feel free to reach out.

Mike

[#8]

Sounds good, Mike. Thanks for letting me know!