DonationCoder.com Forum
News and Reviews => Mini-Reviews by Members => Topic started by: m_s on September 26, 2005, 07:15 AM
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Does anyone know of (or could anyone code) a small program that would reduce the number of icons in my system tray - I have seen a pay-for one (can't remember title), but wonder if there is a free one. I know Windows does this natively, but I would love to be able to just select which icons would always be hidden, and show them again with a mouseclick. Anybody know?
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I haven't tried it but this looks promising and it is free http://www.freevbcode.com/ShowCode.asp?ID=3334
There are a whole load of other options here:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=system%20tray%20manager
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Does anyone know of (or could anyone code) a small program that would reduce the number of icons in my system tray - I have seen a pay-for one (can't remember title), but wonder if there is a free one. I know Windows does this natively, but I would love to be able to just select which icons would always be hidden, and show them again with a mouseclick. Anybody know?
-m_s
Well, I was searching Google and http://fileforum.betanews.com/ for something like that, but only found buggy programs :( If you should find something, please tell us/me!
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Thanks, Carol - you're a star, as ever!
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You're welcome. Another possibility is http://www.mlin.net/TraySaver.shtml
This has stopped development now but the code has been opened up for people to modify. I'm not up to the task but there are those amongst us who may be interested in carrying this project forward if you smile nicely :D
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You might want to take look at this piece of software
http://wittswallpapers.com/Oldies/traymgr.zip
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Thanks, Zeemar, I think yours is the nicest of the lot (although I wish I could change the default icon...)! And thanks to all who gave this some thought.
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You are welcome.... In fact I also didn't like the Tray Icon
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I just changed the icon with reshacker, which was really easy to do...
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http://www.xdesksoftware.com/systrayx.html
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Reawakening a long-quiet thread:
After using TrayManager for several months, I have gone over to PS Tray Factory (http://www.pssoftlab.com/pstf_info.phtml), which I feel to be a far superior product. I found TrayManager to be unreliable - icons I had hidden would pop back, or the whole thing would suddenly go belly-up for no clear reason. It seems to be a bit rickety in its coding, and it just fell over far too often for me.
By contrast, PS Tray Factory is very solid - I haven't had a crash in about a month of using it - and it is very easy to configure. See attached screenshots for example of it with my frequently-needed programs showing, and then with none showing at all except PS Tray itself (and you can also turn off that icon), and for an image of the configuration window.
In addition, it can minimize any program to the System Tray, and it works well with WindowBlinds (as you'll see from the screenshots). Overall I think it's a winner: highly recommended for anybody who, like me, has too many programs running in their system tray!
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Hey m_s,
Nice job finding and describing this. I think I'll give it a go... :Thmbsup:
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ps. i've talked to author of ps tray factory in the past; seems like a nice guy.
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I travel extensively and the screen on my laptop is .....not very big. I treasure every inch of space and I have tried several programs to control that valuable piece of real estate in the lower right corner. The one I like best is :up: JoinTec Tray Organizer 2.4 which can be downloaded here, among other placeshttp://www.soft32.com/download-mirrors-4690-8.html (http://www.soft32.com/download-mirrors-4690-8.html)
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I travel extensively and the screen on my laptop is .....not very big. I treasure every inch of space and I have tried several programs to control that valuable piece of real estate in the lower right corner. The one I like best is :up: JoinTec Tray Organizer 2.4 which can be downloaded here, among other placeshttp://www.soft32.com/download-mirrors-4690-8.html (http://www.soft32.com/download-mirrors-4690-8.html)
-jdd
This link doesnt work, nor do any links anywhere on google
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:-[My apologies. You're right, Josh. It looks like all the links are broken. :huh: I found a few places where it can be purchased but :( it looks like no free trials are to be had. ....I should have checked first. Sorry!
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I just purchased PS Tray Factory. The program offered a 20 day trial, but after having it installed for a single day, I found it to be the most versatile and well programmed application of its kind. The ability to assign shortcut keys to perform clicking and right clicking of an icon in the tray is genious. This is well worth its asking price and according to the author with correspondence via email, all updates to the program are free for users who register now. He said he is considering moving to the "Pay for major upgrades" licensing scheme, but for now all users who register will get free upgrades. This is a winner in my book and I think mouser should try and get some donated copies for the users of this site. Great find!
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http://www.xdesksoftware.com/systrayx.html
-skywalka
I have been using this for a while now and have found it very useful - doesn't seem buggy or anything to me just solid stuff - also allows you to manage auto start items neatly and has a configurable interface (including hot key assignment). Well worth a look.
Here are some screen shots (click on the screenshot to see full size version and then use the browser back button to return here) ...
A single icon is added to the tray bar (which can be made invisible too and accessed via a hotkey instead). The tray icon menu looks something like:
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but note that all the items in there can be made visible/invisible and they work exactly as the original tray icons would have worked. You can also manage which icons appear in the main tray or in this menu version.
Here are the settings options for the application:
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I would like a program like SysTrayX that can detect when a program's system tray icon changes.
For example I'd only like to be able to see my modem's icon when it has changed from the connected to the "no connection" icon. I don't need to see the icon that tells me it is connected.
I only wish to see the MSN Messenger icon when the service is disconnected.
etc
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I won a free copy of SysTrayX via DC.com and I thought it was a great program, but after trying PSTray, i was blown away. The interface is simply outstanding, the way it detects tray programs is excellent. Its much more accurate in detecting applications in the system tray. SysTrayX left me trying to figure out why some icons would just not show up in the system tray despite settings I changed, and it also left me wondering why some icons always displayed in the system tray despite my setting the application to hide them. PS Tray has some nice options that systrayx does not, such as the ability to send mouse clicks to the tray icons via hotkeys, or a way to restore all tray icons via a hotkey. Customization is a big plus to me in any application, and ps tray supercedes SysTrayX's ability
One thing that won me over with PS Tray was the authors responsiveness. Upon initially winning SysTrayX, I immediately submitted some feature requests and received a response about 2-3 days later. A few weeks later, I submitted a few more changes (13JAN2006) and still have yet to receive a response to my 3 different emails since that time. The PS Tray author, on the other hand, has responded to every one of my emails within 24 hours and has displayed the utmost professionalism.
And as I said in my above post, another thing that won me over with PS Tray, was their upgrade policy. If there is another version released, it will be provided free to the user. With SysTrayX, you have to purchase 12 month subscriptions for upgrades. With that policy, if you pay and there are no upgrades, you have thrown away money. I am a firm believer in certain applications being on a "Pay once for lifetime upgrades" policy. These types of applications are the ones that seem pretty much feature complete, the ones that might only require an occasional bug fix every now and then. However, other apps are perfectly understandable to be placed on a subscription based upgrade plan. A tray manager is one of the applications that should be pay once since its functions can only be expanded so far.
Anyways, I've said my piece. If you have a chance, try out both apps, I think you will find PS Tray to be a much nicer choice due to its much better UI and the vast majority of options that you are provided with.
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i've emailed both authors to see if they want to offer our members a discount :)
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Good to hear mouser. PSTray is definitely an app I would love to see offered on dc.com :) This is exactly the caliber of software that should be on the site :)
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Everything that was originally asked for can be done by windows already.
I know Windows does this natively, but I would love to be able to just select which icons would always be hidden, and show them again with a mouseclick. Anybody know?
Right clicking on the clock in the taskbar (or any other blank space in the system tray) and selecting "customize notifications" brings up a dialog similar to my first screenshot. You can also get there from the 'customize...' button on the taskbar properties dialog.
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I've highlighted the three different choices, "always hide", "always show", and "hide when inactive". The last is the default. Icons that are always hidden will not be shown until you open the systray, by clicking the arrow button. When the systray is closed, active icons and those set as "always show" will be present.
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In my use, I find an icon rarely needs to be specified as "always show", but several will be "always hide".
Of course this isn't perfect. It may not do everything you want. However, it will work well for many people -- once they find out about it.
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just two images to show winxp in classic mode, and how to "activate" this tray management function in windows:
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vs.
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also see this thread: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=2315
BREAKING NEWS:
Author of PS Tray Factory has decided to make a 50% discount available to all donationcoder.com members throughout february. now that's a bargain: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=2339
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I found another program which looks interesting. I think it wasn't mentioned here.
It's called Captain Tray Pro (http://www.captaintray.com/content/view/12/26/).
I didn't test it yet.
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btw the makers of captain tray pro are offering 50% discount to donationcoder.com members: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=2319.0
so is ps tray factory: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=2339.0
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Sorry, I've had a cold for over a week and am literally quite "thick" tonight, I am also thick as in I am not getting how this kind of app is going to be useful on an XP box? I used TrayManager when I was on 2k but as noted by Kniht in this thread, XP's system tray options mean that on the face of it, these apps are duplicating functionality that's already present. I've looked at the websites for all of the apps mentioned in the thread and still can't see what additional functionality these would provide under XP, other than system tray recovery following an explorer.exe crash - a feature I really found useful in TrayManager when running 2k... I installed the demo of PS Tray Factory but a cursory look at the options and playing around with it hasn't cleared this up for me.
Can anyone comment on the uses that these apps can be put to under XP?
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See my review located here, https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=2315.0 , if you still have questions let me know and I will answer them for ya
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darwin, one thing these tools can do is change the order of the tray icons. another is to have a menu which shows all the hidden icons and their TOOLTIP HINTS - this can be extrememly useful if you have a tray icon which you want hidden but want to see its tooltip hint on demand (like a weather tool).
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Thanks guys, between Josh's review (don't know how I missed that one) and mouser's comments above that clears things up for me nicely!