TraySaver is an advanced system tray management utility for Windows 95/98/NT. It gives you a more compact & manageable taskbar by allowing you to hide system tray icons. Tray icons can be moved into a separate floating window, which can then be moved around or hidden as you please. In addition, TraySaver rescues tray icons lost after an Explorer crash, and enables any window to be minimized to the system tray.

TraySaver Beta 10 is now available for Windows 95, 98, and NT 4.0. I have not tested it on Windows 2000, so I cannot recommend using it under this operating system; however, some users have reported success with it.

TraySaver is written by Mike Lin using Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0. Feel free to drop me a line with any questions or comments.

Download TraySaver

IMPORTANT: If you are using a previous version of TraySaver, you must uninstall it before continuing. Follow the instructions on the FAQ page for uninstalling. If you receive an access denied error message deleting any files, you must reboot and delete them. Then, proceed with Beta 10setup. UPGRADING FROM A PREVIOUS BETA WITHOUT UNINSTALLING CAN RENDER YOUR SYSTEM UNBOOTABLE. Should this situation arise, recovery instructions are available on my Common Problems page.

TraySaver is still in an experimental stage. Many users find that older versions work better than the newest. So, I am making some of the older versions available, but use at your own risk. It's safe to install an older version, but uninstall any newer ones first.

  • TraySaverB9.exe (Beta 9)
  • TraySaverB8.exe (Beta 8)
  • TraySaverB7.exe (Beta 7) - This version didn't go over too well. Minimize to Tray was temporarily removed in this one, but the Solitaire bug was fixed. Some people had much better results with this, for others it crashed and burned.
  • TraySaverB6.exe (Beta 6) - Pretty much the same deal as Beta 5, but with a redesigned TraySaver Tray (lacks ToolTips, though).
  • TraySaverSetup.exe (Beta 5) - This was probably the most popular version - although its TraySaver Tray is less spiffy than later versions, it seemed to work decently for most people. This version also works with the LiteStep shell.

TraySaver Source Code

My free time to continue development of TraySaver is extremely limited; therefore, I am making the source code available to anyone who wants to improve upon it. The code is documented but there is no top-down architectural overview at this time. I am not providing general developer support for the code but I'll try to answer any specific questions about it.

The source is a Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 workspace. It is comprised of three projects, TraySaver3, the main TraySaver executable (the "3" is because I rewrote it several times), TraySpy, the support DLL that monitors the system tray, and WndSpy, the support DLL that monitors the creation & destruction of new windows to support the minimize to tray feature.

It is possible to seriously mess up your system by doing the wrong things with this source code (it happened to me more than once). The DLLs invade other processes, so if they cause crashes, your entire system is going to blow up (speaking figuratively). Needless to say I'm not responsible for any damages that may result.

Download it here (64kb).

TraySaver SourceForge Project

If you would like to help with the further development of TraySaver, please sign up for the SourceForge project here.

 

Copyright © 1999-2001 by Mike Lin. All Rights Reserved.