Skip to content

Adding Flags to a Shortcut

The launcher accepts several optional command-line flags that change its behavior — running diagnostics, forcing a clean reinstall, opening the log afterward, and so on. Flags are passed to the launcher through the shortcut's Target property.

How to edit a shortcut

  1. Right-click the Pulse Dashboard shortcut → Properties.
  2. On the Shortcut tab, find the Target field. It looks something like: 
    "\\server\share\PulseDashboard\Pulse Dashboard Client.exe"
  3. Append flags after the closing quote, separated by spaces: 
    "\\server\share\PulseDashboard\Pulse Dashboard Client.exe" /clean /verify
  4. Click OK.

That's it. From then on, double-clicking that shortcut runs the launcher with those flags.

Flag syntax

All three styles work and are equivalent: /clean, -clean, --clean. Flags are case-insensitive. Order doesn't matter.

Don't put flags inside the quotes

The quotes are only around the path because it has spaces. Flags go outside: "...path..." /clean not "...path... /clean".

Useful shortcut templates

You may want to keep multiple shortcuts side-by-side for different scenarios. Here are some practical combinations.

Pulse Dashboard

The standard shortcut everyone uses. No flags needed.

"\\server\share\Pulse Dashboard Client.exe"

Pulse Dashboard (Recovery)

For when something is wrong and a user needs a clean reinstall. The /clean flag prompts for confirmation before wiping the local install; /verify adds hash-level verification to catch any byte-level corruption.

"\\server\share\Pulse Dashboard Client.exe" /clean /verify

Pulse Dashboard (Sync Only)

Runs the sync but doesn't launch the application. Useful when you only want to refresh the local files — for example, before manually examining them.

"\\server\share\Pulse Dashboard Client.exe" /skiplaunch

Pulse Dashboard (Diagnostic)

Opens the log file in Notepad after the launcher exits. Useful for IT/support when investigating a user's launch.

"\\server\share\Pulse Dashboard Client.exe" /showlog

Pulse Dashboard (Full Recovery, Quiet)

The maximum-paranoia recovery option: wipe the local install, re-sync everything with hash verification, open the log so you can see what happened, and skip the confirmation prompt for scripted scenarios.

"\\server\share\Pulse Dashboard Client.exe" /clean /verify /yes /showlog

Verifying the flags worked

After changing a shortcut, double-click it and check the log file. The first few lines of each session show the flags that were active:

=== Session 20260501-180350 started at 2026-05-01 18:03:50 ===
18:03:50.319 [INFO ] Clean flag set: client directory will be wiped before sync.
18:03:50.319 [INFO ] Verify flag set: strict (SHA1 hash) verification will be used for every copied file.
...

If you don't see the expected flag messages, the shortcut isn't passing them correctly — most likely because they ended up inside the quotes or the wrong shortcut was used.

See also