Minimize any window to a system tray icon
Posted on December 30, 2008 at 5:22 am
Earlier I wrote about a program called TrayIt that allows you to minimize any program to the system tray in Windows. The program is cool because you can use it to clear up your taskbar by moving minimized programs to the system tray.
However, one issue that I had with TrayIt was that each program that I minimized to the system tray would get it’s own icon. I tend to use a lot of programs and hence my system tray was starting to become cluttered also! It was also start to stick out way farther than it should.
Minime is another freeware program that also allows you to minimize applications to the system tray, but it minimizes all programs to a SINGLE system tray icon! Now that is cool! So instead of my system tray become stuffed with 10 different icons for 10 different programs, I can just click on one icon and access any of my minimized program.
Here is what a screen shot of the program looks like with several applications minimized to the single tray icon:
You can use a keyboard shortcut to instantly send the active window to the Minime system tray icon by pressing CTRL + SHIFT + Z. That will bypass the taskbar and send it to the system tray.
You can right-click on the tray icon and restore one application or restore all of them at once. The only issue with the program is that it does not have ANY other features or settings that can be configured, so it’s useful, but it would have been nice if there were some more features like TrayIt.
However, after playing around with it, I found that you really don’t any of those extra features. The convenience of having all programs minimized into one tray icon is well worth switching!
The program works with Windows Vista and Windows XP. The developer has also released the source code for the program, which is written in AutoIt, so if you know a bit of programming and you have used AutoIt before, you can change the keyboard shortcut and add other features if you like. Enjoy! Source: LifeHacker
» Filed Under Free Software Downloads
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It appears that “Minime” is not available. The website pointed to shows a “404″ error. Can you update this article? Where can I get the program? Thanks!
Frankd
Excellent! I have added your blog to my RSS reader. And my RSS reader is now minimized to my system tray!