Hi,

I love Nexus Dock. Unfortunately I won't be sticking with it due to the fact it does not handle PWA's. I know this is a limitation of the Windows and not Nexus Dock, but it is a deal breaker. I have reviewed all the troubleshooting steps and nothing works.
Please announce if this is ever resolved and I will gladly use this product.

Thanks

If you find any other dock or application of its kind that handles PWAs, please let me know.

As you yourself stated this is a limitation of Windows itself - PWAs do not expose the necessary integration points for third‑party docks to detect or manage them.

On Windows specifically, PWA adoption is very low. PWAs are also not real Windows apps. They are:

*browser windows

*with a manifest

*and a special command line

*pretending to be apps

Windows does not treat them as applications, so docks cannot treat them as applications.

If Microsoft ever expands PWA support in a way that allows proper integration, I will absolutely revisit this and announce it. I’d be happy to welcome you back at that point.

Since you found the time to express your concern, can you please also give an example of a couple of PWAs that you find crucial, so I can better understand your use case and evaluate AGAIN whether there’s any possible workaround?

Thanks for commenting. Happy to provide examples. I use all the google apps, mail, you tube, calendar, Gemini, Google Messages. All of which are PWA's only that I am aware of.

Ok, I went back to look at this again. There may be a way to handle PWAs using AppUserModelIDs, so I’d like to understand your setup a bit better.

Could you tell me what minimum behavior you would expect from a dock that handles PWAs properly? In other words, what exactly about PWA windows being grouped with normal browser windows is causing problems in your workflow?

Also, which browser are you using to install and run your PWAs?

And finally, I’m curious about your use case: what makes PWAs important enough in your daily workflow that this limitation becomes a deal‑breaker? Understanding this helps me evaluate whether a workaround or proper support is feasible.

Thanks for the examples - that helps a lot. Google’s PWAs behave differently depending on the browser, so this gives me a clearer picture of your setup.

To understand your workflow better, could you tell me which browser you’re using to install these PWAs? Chrome, Edge, and Brave all register PWAs differently in Windows, and that affects how a dock can detect or group them.

Also, since you rely heavily on Google’s web apps, I’d like to understand what specific behavior you expect from a dock when handling PWAs. For example, is the main issue that PWA windows get grouped with normal browser windows, or is there something else that breaks your workflow?

The more detail you can give me, the easier it is for me to evaluate whether proper PWA handling is feasible - or whether a workaround is possible using AppUserModelIDs.

I am using Chrome to install the PWA's. The biggest problem is when I open a pwa from Nexus dock (ie Gmail) it opens fine - but when I click to open a different one (ie Gemini) it opens the window Gmail is in and does not open Gemini. Also, if I open gmail and then click on the icon in the dock again it opens a second window of gmail instead of putting the first window into focus.
I simply want to click on a pwa in the dock that corresponds with that app and have it open it as a single window and act like a single window.

Ok, it seems you might be in luck. I already managed to identify PWAs and have them show as separate windows as well as show the proper icon (at least Chrome PWAs, haven't tested MsEdge PWAs yet, much less Brave).

Next step is to make "Pin to Dock" work for these PWAs so they are launched correctly and make the pinned shortcuts show a running indicator too.

Chrome PWAs are a mess though. From what I read so far, MsEdge PWAs should be much easier to implement.

So, don't go anywhere.

Don't skip the post above this one by accident.



You should be able to prevent this from happening by checking "Allow Multiple Instances" in the Item Properties dialog of each of these PWAs shortcuts in the dock.



Can you please post here screenshots of the Item Properties dialog for a couple of these PWAs?

Ok, MS Edge PWAs initially seemed like a nightmare to handle until I realized all I had to do was treat them EXACTLY like UWP apps. Then it magically worked almost all by itself.

Chrome PWAs on the other hand require a bit more effort.

So, Chrome and Ms Edge PWAs already appear as separate windows on the tasklist, and you can pin both to the dock and launch them from there.

Ms Edge PWAs are 100% functional (including displaying running indicators), Chrome PWAs still need a bit of attention so they display running indicators, etc. But I believe the bulk of the work is already done and what is left is mostly tying lose ends (knock on wood).

Still have to tackle Brave PWAs. Firefox does not support PWAs so that is one less thing to worry about.

So rejoice, you can keep on using Nexus - and you pushed me to look again at PWAs and come up with a workable solution, something that will also benefit others like you.

I'm off to bed now.

Wow, that is really good work. Will all of this be available in an update to the Dock?

Yes, but you will have to pay attention to this thread. Once I'm finished with this I should issue a new beta, and I will let you know here when I do.

I need someone who makes extensive use of PWAs on a daily base (I do not use PWAs at all) to make sure everything is working properly with all the various flavors, and you're the perfect guinea pi.... errr, I mean, user for this.

Happy to oblige.

The perfect su.... too - Google must love this guy, exposing so much data for them to harvest!

Never touched PWAs myself either, not with a very long pole. But then none of my brrowsers ever supported them anyway, and I almost never browse under Windows.

Slight fever tonight but can't sleep. :/

Cool... go get the relevant beta for you from HERE then.

I assume you are running the latest official release (v26.4), right? You need to, to be able to install this beta on top.

If for some reason the added support for Chrome PWAs doesn't work properly on your system (I'm still not sure what happens if you have multiple profiles, this version only works with the Default profile) I will need screenshots of the Item Properties dialogs for a couple of your dock PWA shortcuts.

Either way, please let me know ASAP how it went.

Soooo close, all the individual PWA's work really well now. However, when I try to open Chrome itself it only opens or minimizes the last PWA I was working with. It does not open the chrome browser.