JSI Tip 9248. TrayIt!.exe freeware move items from the Taskbar to the System Tray (Notification Area).

Jerold Schulman

April 11, 2005

6 Min Read
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One way to preserve Taskbar space is to move some icons to the Notification Area, where they appear as a smaller icon.

Download Trayit.zip. Unzip the files and store them in a folder. The readme.txt file contains:

TrayIt! saves precious Taskbar space for minimized windows. For each application which applies TrayIt! it creates a small icon in the System Tray. (System Tray area is located near the Clock). When application's window is minimized this icon represents the application on the Taskbar instead of the regular "button" in the Taskbar.

It is particularly useful for background tasks you typically keep
running on your PC all day long like your favorite E-mail client,
Real Player, etc.

TrayIt! runs on Windows 95/98/Me, NT/2000/XP and does not require any installation.
Simply create a new folder and place TrayIt!.exe and TrayIt!.dll there. When started, TrayIt! will show a dialog box with a short explanation how to use it. You may choose to load TrayIt! on system startup by selecting "Option" and checking "Load TrayIt! on StartUp" box.

1. You can temporarily put any window in the system tray by keeping down the button when minimizing the window.

2. To always keep window in the system tray when minimized, click with the RIGHT mouse button on the corresponding icon created in the tray in the previous step and check "Place in System Tray" in the popup menu.

3. Clicking with the right mouse button on the minimize icon will bring TrayIt! context menu for this window. Just check "Place in System Tray" in the popup menu to make window always go to the tray.

Please note that context menu will work only for the standard minimize icon and will not pop-up if the program use skins like MS Media player.

TrayIt! stores setting in the Windows Registry so that you need to configure
your applications only once. And, of course, you can put your favorite programs
in the "Startup" folder and start "minimized"!

If you decide to stop using TrayIt! entirely visit the popup menu mentioned above
from any application. Select "TrayIt Application/Options", press Clean All Settinsg" button and reboot your computer.

TrayIt! supports the following options for each minimized window:

- Minimize on start - TrayIt! will minimize the selected window on start. The effect of this option is very similar to selecting "Run:Minimized" for the application shortcut. Please use it when the latest doesn't work correctly.
- Restore window from the System Tray when application is activated - TrayIt! will restore application window whenever it becomes activated. Usually you will  turn on this option if application remains minimized when you click on the associated document.
- Hide application Icon - TryIt! will remove application from the taskbar, but will hide the corresponding tray icon. Please use this option extremely carefully - application will just "disappear" from the screen.
- Match pattern with the window title when creating a System Tray icon - when this option is activated you can specify a pattern that TrayIt will mach with an application window.
TrayIt! looks for a substring in a window title that matches a pattern. TrayIt! applies patterns from left to right and stops when first match is found. Patterns are not case sensitive. Use '|' to separate patterns, '*' and '?' wildcards are allowed in the pattern specification. '^' as a first symbol inverts meaning of the pattern.
Example: My Computer|Control Panel added to the explorer specification will create a System Tray icon only this two folders.

You can customize TrayIt! behavior by selecting the following options from the "TrayIt! Application/Option" menu:

Options tab:

- Load TrayIt! on StartUp - creates a shortcut to the TrayIt! application in the user's Startup folder
- Activate application by a Single-click on the System Tray icon - when turned off you need to double-ckick on icon in the System Tray to activate an application.
- Clicking on the System Tray icon minimizes when in Foreground - which this option turned on, Clicking on the System Tray icon will minimize associated window when it is in the Foreground.
- Allow minimizing of the Console windows under Windows NT - please turn this option on to allow processing of console windows under Windows NT. Please note that TrayIt! does not distinguish between console windows belonging to different applications. Please use "Match Pattern" option for the console window to make minimizing more selective. Please note that TrayIt! will not minimize windows belonging to the NT system services - "Place in system tray" menu remains grayed in this case.
- Show usage information when selecting the "Windows" tab - TrayIt! will show help information every time when you select the "Windows" tab
- Set compatibility mode for the older versions of Windows 95 -  Please turn this mode ONLY   if you are running an older version of Win95 and experiencing difficulties using ALT-TAB combination to switch windows application. When turned on, TrayIt! will ignore all 16-bit application and DOS boxes. Please restart TrayIt! to activate this option.

Windows tab:

In some cases TrayIt! will not hide task bar button because an application creates a small invisible window to represent itself in the task bar (all Delphi applications and some others) - in this case the text in the task bar usually differs from the title of the main window. Please use text in the TASKBAR, not the window title when looking for a particular window.

Window "skins" often replace the standard minimize buttons with a "fancy" one so that popup-menu doesn't come up if you click on it with the right mouse button.
To put such windows in the system tray, pop-up the context menu for the desired window by clicking with the RIGHT MOUSE button on the appropriate line in the window list.

If you start TrayIt! manually and would like to suppress the startup dialog box, just create a shortcut and specify /H in the start-up command.

If you encounter a problem while running TrayIt!, please visit http://www.teamcti.com/TrayIt to obtain the latest version. If you still have problems, please send a short description to: [email protected].

TrayIt! is absolutely FREE and if you know of a good site, please upload TrayIt.ZIP!

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LIABILITY DISCLAIMER -- READ BEFORE INSTALLING TRAYIT!

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESSED, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING AND WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR HIS COMPANY BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF INFORMATION, OR ANY OTHER LOSS) , WHETHER OR NOT ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGE, AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS SOFTWARE.



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