(Note: steps without explanation are given at the end as recap.)

First of all open up your terminal and type cd to /home/spot since you will be running google-chrome with the user spot. Then create Desktop directory there using mkdir Desktop. Now since the Desktop directory created will not be permitted to write to for user Spot, we need to give permissions for it. So type in chmod 777 Desktop which will provide all permissions for every user for that directory. Next go to chrome://apps in chrome, right click the application you want to create shortcut for and click Create shortcuts… . Make sure that only Desktop is selected and click create. This will create a chrome-*.desktop file in /home/spot/Desktop. Next use any text editor to open the created file and check the line(s) containing Exec. Change it from Exec=… to Exec=run-as-spot… For example this is the Exec line from youtube shortcut-

Exec=run-as-spot /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome.bin –profile-directory=Default –app-id=agimnkijcaahngcdmfeangaknmldooml

The id might be different for your device. You may download the icon from the app’s website and change the Icon=… line to Icon=path/to/icon/icon.png. Next you will need to add Categories=X-Internet line and the desktop file will be ready. For example on my computer the youtube desktop file is as follows-

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open

[Desktop Entry]

Version=1.0

Terminal=false

Type=Application

Name=YouTube

Exec=run-as-spot /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome.bin –profile-directory=Default –app

id=agimnkijcaahngcdmfeangaknmldooml

Icon=/home/spot/Documents/.youtube-icon.png

StartupWMClass=crx_agimnkijcaahngcdmfeangaknmldooml

Actions=Explore;Subscriptions

Categories=X-Internet

[Desktop Action Explore]

Name=Explore

Exec=run-as-spot /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome.bin –profile-directory=Default –app-id=agimnkijcaahngcdmfeangaknmldooml “–app-launch-url-for-shortcuts-menu-item=https://www.youtube.com/feed/explore?feature=app_shortcuts”

[Desktop Action Subscriptions]

Name=Subscriptions

Exec=run-as-spot /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome.bin –profile-directory=Default –app-id=agimnkijcaahngcdmfeangaknmldooml “–app-launch-url-for-shortcuts-menu-item=https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions?feature=app_shortcuts”

Next you need to mv your chrome-*.desktop file to /usr/share/applications/ or /root/.local/share/applications/. Then go to application menu and click Fixmenus. This will create a shortcut in application menu in Internet. If not created then try restarting the graphical server or even the computer.

Now to create a shortcut in Desktop, open up ROX or any other file explorer, go to /usr/share/applications/ (or /root/.local/share/applications/ if you moved your chrome-*.desktop there), drag and drop the chrome-*.desktop file that you currently made to desktop (not the folder /root/Desktop, but the graphical desktop). This will make your shortcut in desktop.

Recap-

1. In terminal, cd /home/spot/ && mkdir Desktop && chmod 777 Desktop

2. In chrome open chrome://apps, right click the desired app, click Create shortcuts…, select only Desktop and click create

3. Open created chrome-*.desktop file in /home/spot/Desktop

4. Edit it with any text editor. Change Exec=…. to Exec=run-as-spot….. You may also set Icon=path/to/icon/icon.png to set its icon. Append line Categories=X-Internet.

5. In terminal, mv chrome-*.desktop /usr/share/applications/ or /root/.local/share/applications/.

6. Go to application menu and click Fixmenus. If needed then restart graphical server or even the computer.

7. This will create chrome app’s shortcut in application menu.

8. To also create shortcut in Desktop, use graphical file explorer and go to the directory where you moved your chrome-*.desktop file. Drag and drop the file to the desktop (not the folder /root/Desktop, but the graphical desktop).