CodeGuru Home VC++ / MFC / C++ .NET / C# Visual Basic VB Forums Developer.com
Results 1 to 3 of 3
  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Portland, OR
    Posts
    1,488

    Forcing app icon to be always shown on tray in Windows 7/8

    Does anyone know where in registry the Explorer stores tray icons visibility settings? (Always show, show only notifications, or always hide.)

    PS. I know that Microsoft doesn't want us to change these from a program, which may be OK for a home computer, but it becomes a major pain in the ___ for an enterprise environment (as there seems to be no GPO to do this either.) I've seen couple commercial products that were able to do this, so I'm sure there's a "hack" somewhere...

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    Timisoara, Romania
    Posts
    14,360

    Re: Forcing app icon to be always shown on tray in Windows 7/8

    There is no interface for preventing your notification icon from being hidden http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/.../10105142.aspx and No, you can't ask whether your notification icon is visible or not http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/.../10157902.aspx.
    Marius Bancila
    Home Page
    My CodeGuru articles

    I do not offer technical support via PM or e-mail. Please use vbBulletin codes.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Portland, OR
    Posts
    1,488

    Re: Forcing app icon to be always shown on tray in Windows 7/8

    Quote Originally Posted by cilu View Post
    There is no interface for preventing your notification icon from being hidden...
    Yes, I know that there's no "documented" way of doing it. What I guess, I'm looking for is a "hack". As I explained above there's no reason to block this option for an enterprise setting. I found a solution that modifies the system registry and restarts the explorer, I just need to put it in code to see if it works. From doing the research on this subject, I can also tell that this approach is used by some installers these days. One example is a Dropbox desktop client that obviously needs to show updates on file uploads/downloads without involving that hideous popup balloon.

    I understand that employing such a "hack" would be a violation of whatever rules Microsoft might have concocted in their MSDN, but to be honest with you, I don't think that hiding tray icons by default was such a good idea from the start. The way it should've been done from the get-go is that icons should've been always visible by default and a user should have an option to "always hide" any of them manually (without an API to undo such decision.)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  





Click Here to Expand Forum to Full Width

Featured