Example of a SysTray App in Win32

• Download demo - 256 KB
• Download source - 21.2 KB

Introduction

Have you ever wondered how to create a cool application that runs in the background like a screen capture?

About the demo

The demo is a basic systray application with a popup menu and disable/enable option. It is the basic skeleton for anyone who wants to create a systray application.

How to create a systray (taskbar) application

Include the ShellAPI library

#include <shellapi.h>

Init the NOTIFYICONDATA struct

nidApp.cbSize = sizeof(NOTIFYICONDATA); 
nidApp.hWnd = (HWND) hWnd;
nidApp.uID = IDI_SYSTRAYDEMO; 
nidApp.uFlags = NIF_ICON | NIF_MESSAGE | NIF_TIP; 
nidApp.hIcon = hMainIcon; 
nidApp.uCallbackMessage = WM_USER_SHELLICON; 
LoadString(hInstance, IDS_APPTOOLTIP,nidApp.szTip,MAX_LOADSTRING);

Show the systary icon

Shell_NotifyIcon(NIM_ADD, &nidApp);

Response to the message

Now our application gets a callback message when the mouse is moving over the systray icon. In our window callback function:

switch (message)
{
    case WM_USER_SHELLICON: 
        // systray msg callback 
        switch(LOWORD(lParam)) 
        {
            case WM_RBUTTONDOWN:

Now we are monitoring the right button click.

Create a dynamic popup menu

UINT uFlag = MF_BYPOSITION|MF_STRING;
GetCursorPos(&lpClickPoint);
hPopMenu = CreatePopupMenu();
InsertMenu(hPopMenu,0xFFFFFFFF,MF_BYPOSITION|MF_STRING,IDM_ABOUT,_T("About"));
if ( bDisable == TRUE )
{
    uFlag |= MF_GRAYED;
}
InsertMenu(hPopMenu,0xFFFFFFFF,uFlag,IDM_TEST2,_T("Test 2"));
InsertMenu(hPopMenu,0xFFFFFFFF,uFlag,IDM_TEST1,_T("Test 1"));
InsertMenu(hPopMenu,0xFFFFFFFF,MF_SEPARATOR,IDM_SEP,_T("SEP"));
if ( bDisable == TRUE )
{
    InsertMenu(hPopMenu,0xFFFFFFFF, 
               MF_BYPOSITION|MF_STRING,IDM_ENABLE,_T("Enable"));
}
else 
{
    InsertMenu(hPopMenu,0xFFFFFFFF,MF_BYPOSITION|MF_STRING,IDM_DISABLE,_T("Disable"));    
}
InsertMenu(hPopMenu,0xFFFFFFFF,MF_SEPARATOR,IDM_SEP,_T("SEP"));    
InsertMenu(hPopMenu,0xFFFFFFFF,MF_BYPOSITION|MF_STRING,IDM_EXIT,_T("Exit"));     
SetForegroundWindow(hWnd);
TrackPopupMenu(hPopMenu,TPM_LEFTALIGN|TPM_LEFTBUTTON|TPM_BOTTOMALIGN,
               lpClickPoint.x, lpClickPoint.y,0,hWnd,NULL);

When the application is closed

We need to delete the systray.

Shell_NotifyIcon(NIM_DELETE,&nidApp);

A word from the author

More information can be found from the MSDN site: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/shell/reference/functions/shell_notifyicon.asp.