[Ham-Computers] RE: XP Systray

[Hsu, Aaron (NBC Universal)]

John,

The "expand" button for the systray will show *ONLY* if there are "active" hidden icons ("active" meaning that the app that put the icon there is currently running).

Windows has a MRU (most recently used) list for the systray which can be accessed via right-clicking on the Taskbar -> Properties.  If you tick the "Hide inactive icons" box, you can then "customize" which systray icons are shown or not shown.  The MRU shows the "current" icons ("active") on the top of the list and icons that were once detected by Windows, but are currently "inactive", on the bottom of the list.  Regardless of active or inactive, you can set each icon to one of the following settings (aka "Behavior"):

* Hide when inactive
This is the Windows default setting.  Windows will automatically "hide" the icon if the icon itself hasn't been changed (aka static) by the app.  Examples of a change are color, size, picture, just about any "change".  Exactly how long an icon needs to be idle before Windows hides it is a good question.  

* Always hide
This forces the icon to always be hidden even if it changes.  An example of it's use is if you have a program that always starts with Windows and adds a tray icon, but you never want to see the icon.

* Always show
This forces the icon to always be shown in the tasktray.  A good use of this is for Anti-virus apps as you always want to know the status of your AV app even if it hasn't detected anything in a while.

Note:  Windows doesn't always keep good track of which icon belongs to which app, so you might see a particular app's icon several times.  Or, you might see the wrong app or a strange name associated with a particular icon.  To be safe, just make changes to "active" apps/icons and leave the "past items" alone.

I currently have 22 icons in this PC's systray.  Do I need to see *all* of them?   NO.  So, I've hidden 5 of them so they never show and the rest hide themselves.  I've also set 4 to "always show" as I might need to access them at any particular point in time (anti-virus, firewall, process explorer, volume control).

So, John, check the individual icon settings and see if any are allowed to hide.  If not, then the missing expand button is because nothing is hidden in the systray.

73,

  - Aaron, NN6O



-----Original Message-----
Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2007 10:27 AM
Subject: [Ham-Computers] XP Systray

In the XP systray, there is to far left of the clock a button that upon clicking expands the systray to show all icons there.

Something I have done caused this button to disappear.  It does not reappear on a restart or a cold boot.

Anybody know the steps I should take to bring this button back?

John W0IKT