Icon Corral 2.0 --------------- The Icon Corral allows you to prevent specific programs from adding entries to the taskbar. This is good for reducing taskbar clutter caused by programs such as Schedule+, PPP dialer, perfmon, clock, e-mail notify, iconbar, etc. Icon Corral optionally uses taskbar notification area icons (you know, those ones by the clock) to hold minimized windows without taskbar entries. New features in 2.0: -------------------- + Even non-minimized programs can have their taskbar entry hidden + You can now hide by executable name + You can configure the taskbar behavior of an executable by a new tab on its property page + You can drag and drop shortcuts and exe's to the iconcorral setup dialog + Notify icons are updated periodically + You can choose to give each minimized entry its own notify icon or not + There is now a setup and uninstall program Setup ------- If you are upgrading from an older version of Icon Corral or a beta of 2.0 without uninstall, you should first do a manual uninstall: + delete the shortcut in Startup, if you have one there + remove IconCorl.exe (optional) + if you're upgrading from a beta of 2.0, remove taskhide.dll You do not need to worry about cleaning up .ini files or the registry. To install 2.0, run setup.exe from the distribution files. Setup will by default install The Icon Corral into your 'Program Files' directory, and it will automatically create a shortcut to Icon Corral in your startup group. Once The Icon Corral is installed, you can delete all distribution files. To uninstall The Icon Corral, use the Add/Remove Programs control panel applet. Usage ----- Once Icon Corral is installed and running, there are several ways to configure the taskbar behavior. The coolest way is to invoke the property page for an executable: Icon Corral 2.0 adds a new property sheet called 'Taskbar' that lets you configure an exe's taskbar behavior. You can also configure the Icon Corral off the context menu of any of Icon Corral's notify icons. This brings up the global configuration dialog which lets you add, remove, edit, and drag-and-drop entries. Configuration, either way it is done, is fairly similar. A series of checkboxes and radio buttons let you choose what you want hidden (an executable or window) and how (always or just when minimized), and whether or not the entry will get its own notify icon when minimized. If you choose to hide by window title, you can even use wildcards (*) in this specification. There is also an option for overriding the default taskbar notification icon. Dragging executables and/or shortcuts to the global setup dialog creates default specs that can easily be edited. When Icon Corral finds any taskbar entry that meets spec, it will remove it from the taskbar and add a new notify icon if approprate. Left-clicking on a notify icon will restore the corresponding program. Right-clicking allows you to do the normal context menu stuff plus it will let you configure/exit the Icon Corral, and restore any completely hidden programs (that is, those minimized without their own notify icons). When Icon Corral isn't showing any custom notify icons it shows its own icon. Bonus: Icon Corral adds 'Disconnect' to Win95 PPP Dialer's context menu. Notes ----- + Some executables are not what you'd expect. For example pbrush.exe in c:/windows really just loads paint.exe elsewhere on the system. PPP dialer is rnaapp.exe. + You can't drag-n-drop DUN icons, because they're not exe's. + The mouse pointer may (repeatedly) move over the Start button while the Icon Corral is loading (this is a fix to an even even more unsightly solution) + This program currently conflicts with Nortin Navigator Taskbar, and some other programs that hook onto the desktop or taskbar. Side effects include not being able to hide when not minimized. + If you do not see the 'Taskbar' tab on the property pages, you may need to update your registry to include the complete path of taskhide.dll (do a registry search for taskhide.dll). You may also need to remove long filenames from this path (so I've heard...). + This program does not fully work on NT 4.0: the context menus don't work fully, the startup shortcut isn't added, and hide by executable doesn't work. Otherwise you should be able to use it fine. + If a notify icon does not look as you'd expect, it may be that Icon Corral could not automatically find the correct icon. In such cases, specify a custom notify icon. + If explorer crashes, notify icons dissapear even though their programs often continue to run. You can often restore their icons by re-executing Icon Corral and pressing hide. + Minimized programs dissapear from the ALT+TAB chain, non-minimized ones do not. + Icon Corral does not restore taskbar entries for non-minimized programs when it exits. To remedy, simply minimize and restore the window(s) in question. Future versions will solve many of the above quirks. They will also allow notify icons to persist even when the window is restored, and there will be a more powerful grammer for specify window specs. Registration ------------ Please register this product if you decide to keep it. Your support will help make future versions and other products possible. Send $5 to: Eric Askilsrud 14322 148th PL SE Renton, WA 98059 -Eric Askilsrud erask@cs.washington.edu