Author Topic: Tray Management Utilities Mini-Review (Read 105519 times)

superboyac · « **Reply #25 on:** August 13, 2007, 10:39 AM »

After using SystrayX for almost 2 years, I have now switched back to PS Tray. PS Tray is way better than Systrayx, for a variety of reasons, most of which have been mentioned here. The final straw for me was all the flickering and beeping when you pulled up the hidden icon menu. PS Tray is rock solid, and has a much better licensing policy.

Darwin · « **Reply #26 on:** August 13, 2007, 02:56 PM »

I'm loving PS Tray Factory - thanks again to Josh for the original mini-review - I never would have looked at it if it weren't for his review

Darwin · « **Reply #27 on:** September 17, 2008, 03:56 PM »

Thank you Josh! Thank you Superboyac (for linking to this discussion)! I'd given up on PSTray Factory and Vista (version 2.5 installs fine but does nothing) and will give this a whirl

Scott · « **Reply #28 on:** November 19, 2008, 09:18 PM »

[PS Tray Factory] requires the use of the windows key for hotkey configuration, instead of letting the user select from the CTRL + ALT combinations. Not a very major problem, but the option to use the windows logo key should be just that, optional.
-Josh (February 04, 2006, 11:04 PM)

The PS Tray Factory 2.5 hotkey settings do not require the Windows key. For example, the hotkey settings in the attached file result in the hotkey being set to Ctrl+Alt+W. The Windows key isn't part of it unless the "Win" checkbox is selected. Those checkboxes don't enable/disable the hotkeys (for that, press Ctrl while the cursor is in the hotkey text box, to set it to "None").

Curt · « **Reply #29 on:** November 28, 2008, 02:26 PM »

I'd given up on PSTray Factory and Vista (version 2.5 installs fine but does nothing)
-Darwin (September 17, 2008, 03:56 PM)

- odd!! I installed 2.5 on Vista (only heard of the 2.63 today), and it worked as it did on XP; fine!

Scott · « **Reply #30 on:** November 28, 2008, 02:33 PM »

I bought PSTF (because to this day, I'm stupid enough to buy shareware before testing it fully), and I'm disgusted with it. Not only did it screw up some of my tray icons (especially Vuze) by making two, three, four, or even more duplicate icons appear erroneously, it has proven useless for restoring icons after an Explorer kill or crash. That sucks, because icon restoration is the main reason I bought the damned thing.

I sent two emails to "support" (first one sent 8 days before today) and have been completely ignored.

I don't need to hear "Works great for me; you must suck!" from 15 other people. Really. (No need to copy/paste that sentence to be cute, either.)

I fully admit the loss of cash is my fault. I never learn. Oh well. I'll find a way to make it up.

Darwin · « **Reply #31 on:** November 28, 2008, 05:47 PM »

I'd given up on PSTray Factory and Vista (version 2.5 installs fine but does nothing)
-Darwin (September 17, 2008, 03:56 PM)

- odd!! I installed 2.5 on Vista (only heard of the 2.63 today), and it worked as it did on XP; fine!
-Curt (November 28, 2008, 02:26 PM)

This is indeed odd, Curt - glad it works for you, though.

Darwin · « **Reply #32 on:** November 28, 2008, 05:51 PM »

I sent two emails to "support" (first one sent 8 days before today) and have been completely ignored.
-Scott (November 28, 2008, 02:33 PM)

FWIW - I had occasion to write to support recently as well and have not had a response*.

*Of course, I wrote yesterday and today is a holiday in the US...

Darwin · « **Reply #33 on:** December 19, 2008, 06:29 PM »

Never did hear from the developer. I'm moving to 64-bit Vista Ultimate so will renew my efforts to contact him or her! I'll report back soon (I hope...).

Darwin · « **Reply #34 on:** January 03, 2009, 09:28 AM »

Update - finally got around to writing to PS Tray Factory development team re: 64-bit support today. Will report back if I get a response (not optimistic, though, given the stony silence that greeted my last missive

).

Darwin · « **Reply #35 on:** January 04, 2009, 12:57 PM »

I had a response today along with a link to a functioning 64-bit compatible version

It's an alpha of version 3 of Tray Factory - I'll post a link to it if the developer gives me permission to do so.

Just to note: I posted about this here as well.

Scott · « **Reply #36 on:** February 01, 2009, 07:51 PM »

Still haven't received responses from PTFF "support". How nice of them. I do support for a software vendor, and if I pulled that kind of crap, I'd be out of a job. Nice that some people just don't have to give a damn. Good for them.

Darwin · « **Reply #37 on:** February 01, 2009, 10:15 PM »

Still haven't received responses from PTFF "support". How nice of them. I do support for a software vendor, and if I pulled that kind of crap, I'd be out of a job. Nice that some people just don't have to give a damn. Good for them.
-Scott (February 01, 2009, 07:51 PM)

Yes, sadly my communications with the developer, while pleasant enough, have been VERY sporadic! I’m not running PS Tray Factory at all at the moment as the latest build sends explorer.exe into fits, so I await a fresh release. I find Vista's 'Hide Inactive Icons” feature to be much better implemented than the one in XP and don't really miss having a third party solution available.

PS just took a look and realize that you've not had a response in two months now. Not good - you probably don't care at this point (though your cash is invested in the thing), but have you tried writing again? I got a response on my second try...

miki75 · « **Reply #38 on:** February 15, 2009, 05:10 PM »

Still haven't received responses from PTFF "support". How nice of them. I do support for a software vendor, and if I pulled that kind of crap, I'd be out of a job. Nice that some people just don't have to give a damn. Good for them.
-Scott (February 01, 2009, 07:51 PM)

Hi all,

not easy communications with PS Tray Factory's author ... first email without reply for 5 days,
then sent it again and I received a reply in few hours.
IMHO PS Tray Factory is the best for tray icons menagement with versions 2.6 or 3.0
but the version 3 is "currently unstable" (under develop) as wrote by Darwin.
I use version 3 on my XP SP3 without any problem

Regards

Miki

Darwin · « **Reply #39 on:** February 15, 2009, 07:00 PM »

I received an acknowledgement of my last beta bug report yesterday (though I had sent it about a week ago). The developer IS working on this - hopefully we'll see a stable release soon. I'm currently not running it and am using Vista's built in hide icons feature. As noted earlier, after about 6 hours, I can get by without it without being inconvenienced... however, I don't want to work like this forever!

Darwin · « **Reply #40 on:** February 18, 2009, 01:32 PM »

I've posted a link to the latest alpha build of PS Tray Factory 3 in the Similar program to Ps Tray factory that works on Vista 64-bit. thread.

Am about to install it myself...

Darwin · « **Reply #41 on:** February 18, 2009, 01:45 PM »

Just an update, this build doesn't work on my system at all (Vista 64 bit) - it behaves exactly as does PS Tray Factory 2.5 under Vista 32 bit - it installs fine but the main window doesn't populate with icons to be hidden/shown. I'll keep you updated...

Scott · « **Reply #42 on:** February 18, 2009, 02:01 PM »

Wow, you seem to be able to get a response after repeated effort. I've tried several times and am still waiting for reply #1 from this oblivious developer. How nice.

Darwin · « **Reply #43 on:** February 18, 2009, 03:40 PM »

Well... it's not all roses! I find that he usually responds long after I've forgotten all about writing him! In this latest case, I wrote to him on February 11th and had a reply today - so a week's interval. I'm not really bothered one way or the other - I can live without PS Tray Factory on this machine, so there's no real urgency from my end. I like the software under XP and hope that I can help to bring it to the same level under Vista 64 bit (I did use it under Vista 32 bit, but again, Vista's built-in hide tray icons feature seems much more reliable than XP's...).

Scott - what OS are you trying to run PS Tray Factory under? FWIW, it seems that once you enter into a dialogue with the developer, he's pretty good about keeping you in the loop. I definitely get the impression that he has a day job. Not making excuses for the guy - just a (random) observation! Here's another: funny that you and I have wound up on a thread that discusses, in part, SystrayX - my first ever PM exchange was with you regarding disabling the XFilesDialog splash screen

PS cute sig!

Scott · « **Reply #44 on:** February 18, 2009, 03:51 PM »

I tried running this lameware on WinXP Pro SP3.

I can live without it too. What I hate is wasting money (that was my fault for not trying it long enough), and being ignored (not my fault).

Darwin · « **Reply #45 on:** February 18, 2009, 03:58 PM »

I tried running this lameware on WinXP Pro SP3.

I can live without it too. What I hate is wasting money (that was my fault for not trying it long enough), and being ignored (not my fault).
-Scott (February 18, 2009, 03:51 PM)

Can't argue with any of that. Sorry you've had such a crappy experience with this. I agree that customer support really must be improved.

Hope you find a solution that does work for you!

miki75 · « **Reply #46 on:** February 18, 2009, 06:11 PM »

As wrote by Darwin "it's not all roses"

I have received 2 reply from the PS Tray Factory's author, last today 18 and
the original mail was sent on saturday 14 (4 days and there was saturday and sunday)

I'm running PS Tray Factory without any problem on my PC (XP Pro SP3 italian):
http://miki975.inter...tstest2/cpuzPIVb.htm
http://valid.canardp...how_oc.php?id=458554

Started with 2 weeks ago with version 2.63 and no problems
Upgraded last week to version 3.02a and no problems
Upgraded today to version 3.03a and no problems

Regards

Miki

Scott · « **Reply #47 on:** February 18, 2009, 08:01 PM »

Well I guarantee I could sit on anyone's XP system and duplicate the problems with PSTF I've seen.

I give up. PSTF can KMA.

miki75 · « **Reply #48 on:** February 19, 2009, 05:34 PM »

Hi Scott,

I'm sorry for your problem, but I run it without any problem.
Maybe you have particular condition and particular application and
those combined have a problem with PS Tray Factory

Regards

Miki

Darwin · « **Reply #49 on:** March 22, 2009, 05:29 PM »

As noted here and elsewhere, I no longer use PS TrayFactory (or any other tray icon management tool) because Vista's built-in capabilities work fine for me, but I thought I'd alert others to the fact that PS Tray Factory 3 has been officially released with support for 64 bit versions of Windows. I used a recent beta and it worked flawlessly.