ProcessTamer Tray Icon does not display in Vista

[koehlerb]

The tray icon for ProcessTamer does not consistently display in Vista.
When I check what is running, it shows that ProcessTamerTray.exe IS running, but the tray icon is not displayed.  If i try to start ProcessTamer in this state, it is not allowed to start (because a copy is already active).
If I KILL ProcessTamer that is running in the background, it will terminate - then when I re-start it, it does display properly in the tray.

It is a WONDERFUL PRODUCT, but this is annoying...

Thanks

Bruce
Santa Cruz, CA USA Earth

[mouser]

does this problem only manifest itself when it starts at boot time when windows starts?

[koehlerb]

Correct

[mouser]

ok, i don't think you are the only person suffering from this -- i've never had it happen to me with process tamer, but i have had it happen with another program of mine to me.. something causes it occasionally with programs that start with windows.  i'll try to investigate and fix.

[iycgtptyarvg]

I've also had this problem once with a customer. What I did to fix this was call Shell_NotifyIcon with NIM_DELETE and then NIM_ADD to force the reinstitution of the tray icon 60 seconds after my app started.

To be even more sure the tray icon shows up, do this every 3 minutes or so. This will help you with the situation where 'explorer.exe' has been killed and reloaded (after a crash).

[mouser]

thanks iycgtptyarvg -- i think i may just add code to my programs to force a delete/add of the icons 60 seconds or so after startup, good idea.

i wonder if when this phenomena happens where the icon is not shown (either at startup or on explorer crash), whether it's possible to DETECT this condition.  that would be ideal -- then you wouldn't actually have to flash the icon if it wasn't needed.

while it's hard to reproduce the startup with windows rare case where icon doesn't show -- it's easy to reproduce the explorer crash situation.  any idea how one would check for this scenario and check whether your icon became missing from the tray after an explorer crash?

[iycgtptyarvg]

Actually, I don't think there is a good way to do this. If you query your tray icon, you will get the answer that it is being shown (while it isn't). The tray icon won't 'flash' as you say.
No one will notice anything accept that your icon will move to the front. Once it's the first icon, it will stay there.

Regarding the crashing explorer, I think the only way to do that is to check Window's Event viewer. To be honest, I would call this overkill for such a small problem. Simply reinstituting the icon is quick, safe and easy.