Is there a way to "hide" a normal windowed application in Windows?
I'm looking for something that removes it from the taskbar and possibly puts an icon in the system tray instead.
Is there a way to "hide" a normal windowed application in Windows?
I'm looking for something that removes it from the taskbar and possibly puts an icon in the system tray instead.
Take your pick. They all minimize applications to the system tray. They're all free and work with Windows XP.
As of the April 2018 update, Windows 10 is now able hide windows from view without installing extra software. There are now Virtual Desktops that allow you to isolate specific windows to separate environments. Here's how you enable the feature to do as you desire:
Try the open-source tools Minime and RBTray to minimize a Windows application to the system tray and hide it from the taskbar.
minime.exe
. Anyway it doesn't do anything different from the others so it doesn't seem to be worth it.
I use Process Manager for this. It has a lot of other options besides putting an app in the system tray, but I use this the most.
I found a clever workaround in the Windows Seven Forums:
- Either create a new shortcut or copy a shortcut of the program (ex: CCleaner) that you want to pin to the taskbar to your desktop.
NOTE: If you already have this program pinned to the taskbar, then you will need to unpin it before doing step 2.
Right click on the new shortcut (ex: CCleaner) on the desktop, and click on Properties.
In the Shortcut tab, click on the Change Icon button.
In the field under "Look for icons in this file", copy and paste the location below and press Enter.
%SystemRoot%\System32\imageres.dll
Select the blank transparent icon and click on OK.
Click on OK.
Right click on the shortcut (ex: CCleaner) with the new blank icon on the desktop, and click on Pin to Taskbar.
Delete the shortcut (ex: CCleaner) on the desktop.
The invisible program icon is now pinned to the taskbar.
See link above to post in Windows Seven Forums for example screen captures.
I think "4t Tray Minimizer Free" can still do it, at least for most cases:
http://www.4t-niagara.com/tray.html
It has multiple ways to hide to tray.
Sadly, the only reason I tried it today is for a pesky window that it fails to minimize to tray (one of "AnyDesk").
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Desktop-Enhancements/Other-Desktop-Enhancements/Dialog-Mate.shtml. The one I use because it's small, well integrated and has the favorites part also. Right mouse click on the normal maximize/restore control button (on application's Title bar) minimizes any application to an icon on Desktop, right-clicking on minimize button minimizes any application to Tray (what OP asked). It also adds convenient menu to all applications' Title bars for these aforementioned functions, and to set 'Always on Top' also.
Another solution is MenuTools, which is open-source, works in Windows 10, and was last updated on January 23rd, 2020. When you right-click on the title bar of the program, you will notice some additional menu items added to the context menu. One of those being Minimize to Tray which will hide the icon from the taskbar and add an icon to the system tray.