Comment 4 for bug 992856

I was able to workaround the bug as follows:

Before doing any of the following steps, quit awn

1. Clean entries created by simple launcher from it's working directory ~/.config/awn/applets/simple-launcher

2. Copy default schema as a ini file for simple launcher

cp /usr/share/avant-window-navigator/schemas/awn-applet-simple-launcher.schema-ini ~/.config/desktop-agnostic/awn-applet-simple-launcher.ini

3. Copy new ini file as a starting point for running instance of simple launcher

cp ~/.config/desktop-agnostic/awn-applet-simple-launcher.ini ~/.config/desktop-agnostic/instances/awn-applet-simple-launcher-awn-applet-simple-launcher-1343812804.ini

in your case number 1343812804 in file name will be different so use that file as destination.

4. Now start awn and drag-n-drop launchers from gnome-menu or manually create as you wish

That should do it.