Load Thunderbird and have it minimize straight to system tray

Question

I'm setting up Thunderbird and need the mail program to jump into the system tray right after opening.

I tried a couple plugins that should have made it minimize but they don't see to work (maybe because I am on Windows 7 pro 64bit).

Answer 1

Thunderbird does not offer the option 'minimize to tray, but there are plenty ways to skin this cat:

TrayIt! will do the trick.

or Auto Window Manager:

Automatically maximize or minimize or normal all new windows you specify.

Automatically minimize all new windows you specify to system tray.

Automatically keep all new windows you specify always on top.

Adds several menu items to standard window system menu.

Minimize the current window to system tray.

Apply transparency effect from 0% (fully transparent) to 100% (solid) rate to any program in Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista.

Show window property of application, such as window handle, class name, process id etc.

Auto Refresh Internet explorer at custom intervals.

both programs are free.

as for Thunderbird to load at startup, create a shortcut and place it in your startup folder.

Answer 2

You can get Thunderbird (or any program) to load on startup by following this tutorial.

The extension MinimizeToTray is said:

(In development) -Turbo option for Firefox and Thunderbird. MinimizeToTray implements this popular feature from the Mozilla application suite. Have a Firefox tray icon and menu always available, even if no browser window is open. Or have Thunderbird launch directly into the tray only to notify you if you receive mail.

Answer 3

You need to uncheck "leave message on server" for that account. Settings -> Server settings. I am german, and I do not know the exact menu texts, but they should sound similar like I posted here.

If that does not work, this may be an issue with gmail. For my varoius accounts (gmx, web.de), this works very fine.