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Completed

Want colored icon in system tray

Anonymous 9 years ago updated by Michael (Ramen Software) 9 years ago 29
For some reason beyond my meager intelligence, it has become fashionable to have system tray icons be white.  This is bad, because it has long been known from psychophysical experiments that when humans do visual search, the fastest characteristic to search on is color, with red btw being the fastest to find.  Searching on shape is much slower.

Consequently, could you please provide a preference for the tray icon to have some kind of color, maybe not red, but something particular to 7tt?  In fact, I would suggest that some colored tray icon be the default, but for that chacun a son gout.

Answer

Answer
Completed
Done in v4.5.7: If the file "7+ Taskbar Tweaker.ico" exists, it's used as a tray icon.
The above was from me.  I forgot to sign in, and there seems to be no way to claim it retroactively.
Please  specify color... maybe can help
Thanks.  I don't really care too much which color, as long as it's some color.  But if you want a recommendation, I'd stay away from green, since many tray icons already use that, and I would stay away from pure R, pure G, and pure B, since those are also common.  Let's see, the resistor color code for 7 is purple.  Or, you could try the weird raspberry and orange colors that are used in this userecho tracker.
Thanks!  However, although that is a nice icon that would fulfill my requirements, I have no way to make that be the icon that 7tt actually uses in the system tray.  I believe that is something that must be determined by some resource in the executable.  Or, maybe you can tell me how to make that be the icon that appears in the system tray for 7tt?
Ask RaMMicHaeL what is the best way to do it.
You can change the icon manually by using a resource editor, such as Resource Hacker.
The drawback of this approach is that the icon will be restored upon the next update.

Currently, I don't plan to introduce an option to choose the tray icon color, but let's keep this topic open and see whether there's more feedback about it.
Thanks.  Yeah, I was aware of resourcehacker as well as others, but it's a  losing proposition to be going in and meddling in executables from others.  I thought you might see the wisdom of my suggestion, but whatever.

However, you could just choose a color other than white yourself.  I dunno, maybe you like white.  Obviously this is only for convenience to find it faster in the sys tray to click on, not for example trying to get it to work with Win 10, which conceivably might be a higher priority.
Maybe I should clarify:  I don't care what the color is, as long as it isn't white (hmm, or transparent).  Therefore I don't really care if there is a preference to set or toggle the color, as long as in the end I can have a colored icon in the sys tray.

--pbpb
You could, probably easily, automatically use a "7+ Taskbar Tweaker.ico", if it exists in the same directory as "7+ Taskbar Tweaker.exe". More generally, you should look for <basename>.ico, for whatever <basename>.exe is currently running (in case "7+ Taskbar Tweaker.exe" was renamed to something else, like "Taskbar Tweaker.exe", you should look for "Taskbar Tweaker.ico").

This should be easy to implement & persist between updates (simply don't write or overwrite "7+ Taskbar Tweaker.ico" on update.
Under review
That's a good idea, thanks. I'll look at it.
I agree that that's an excellent solution, though it sounds like more implementation work than just your choosing to use a colored icon in the exe.

With the user-supplied icon option, I would request that the developer-default icon still be present somewhere as a fallback.  For example, the user *.ico could be garbage, or it might get deleted at some point.  So, now you get into the error-handling business.
Let's ask otherwise, What is your frequently use with the Icon? getting the Taskbar Inspector?
Yes.  So, I fear you will tell me I should define, memorize, and use a keyboard shortcut?

My brain is very small, and it cannot cope with learning any more keyboard shortcuts.  I learned some keyboard shortcuts many years ago.  Since then my brain has atrophied and refuses to learn any more.  I need to save the few remaining neurons so that I can find my car in the parking lot after going to the store.
There is an option in 7TT to use double or middle click on empty taskbar space for a number of operations, including opening the Taskbar Inspector, which is how I access it. It took a little getting used to but was much easier to learn and remember than a billionth keyboard shortcut. These options are under 'Other taskbar options'. Hope this helps.
Thanks, but I don't need to think about setting additional options, or remembering to do arbitrary things when there is a perfectly good icon right in front of my face that I can use.  Maybe if I was doing this 100 times a day it would be worth it.  I only need to do it once or 2 times a day.
+1
Started
Done in v4.5.6.2 beta: if the file "7+ Taskbar Tweaker.ico" exists, it's used as a tray icon instead of the original one.
Yow!  Thanks!  Now I can distribute that "Free Viagra" icon.  Hmm, or alternately maybe I can figure out how to make a modest payment through paypal.
Oop, forgot to sign in again.  The above was from me.  Also, to clarify WHERE does the icon file need to exist? Installation dir?  (Which might be higher level than location of actual exe, I forget.)
Yes, it should be located in the same folder as the tweaker's executable file, and should have the same name.
Also, thank you for the donation!
Ok, I finally got around to installing it.  Works!  Also, no new bugs that I noticed.
BTW, Misha, I noticed that you have an improved version of resourcehacker on your blog.  Is there any reason you earlier pointed to the original resourcehacker as opposed to your presumably improved version?
The improved version is not a standalone program, it's a patch. I thought there's no reason to complicate things just to replace a single icon.
Answer
Completed
Done in v4.5.7: If the file "7+ Taskbar Tweaker.ico" exists, it's used as a tray icon.
Ok, this isn't super important, but yesterday I noticed that when 7tt has an icon in the taskbar (like when the big preferences window is open, or when displayed in sysinternals process explorer, it still shows the white icon (in the taskbar, or procexp's display -- it's my custom icon in the tray still). I guess when you pick up the icon from the install directory, you don't change that particular resource?
The custom icon is only applied for the tray. I guess that you're the only one who uses this feature, so if you'd like, let me know and I'll apply it for the main window as well.
Thanks, but nahhh, it's not worth the bother to do the hacking just for my benefit. The original issue was for the convenience of spotting the tray icon faster; this issue is just one of consistency -- it doesn't really affect my convenience at all. So, unless your OCD is particularly active today, there's no need to work on it for my benefit.
Check out v4.5.10.3 beta :)