Tray It!

 

Copyright © 1999 by Igor Nys
Inspiration by Nikolay V. Redko

Introduction

TrayIt! allows to save 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 "minimized rectangle".

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.

What’s new

- Support for invisible windows (Delphi applications, Exceed) and window "skins"
- TrayIt! will now work correctly with some dynamically created (Afx) class names (Netscape, Visual Studio)

What’s new in 2.0

- Support for DOS and 16-bit applications under windows 95/98
- Support for Console Windows under windows NT
- Optional single-click activation from the System Tray
- Matching window title for the TrayIt! operation

Installation

TrayIt! runs with Windows NT4/95/98 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.

Using TrayIt!

To create an icon for the application in the System Tray and hide the minimized window from the taskbar, click with the RIGHT mouse button on the "MINIMIZE" icon of the appropriate window and check the "Place in System Tray" menu item on the popup menu. (To clear the application from participation in TrayIt! activity you would simply uncheck this menu item). . Minimize your window to verify that this icon alone represents the window in the minimized state.

You can also temporarily minimize any windows to the system tray by clicking with the RIGHT mouse button on the "CLOSE" icon of the window.

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.

Window Options

TrayIt! supports the following options for each minimized application:

- 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.

- 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.

Application Options

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 run TrayIt! minimized.

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


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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