Question

Windows 7 allows users to hide/show icons in the “notification area” (aka systray).

By default I think they’re hidden?

Is it possible to programatically (either through the app or through an installer) to force icons to appear?

Edit: I’m not looking for a way to override the user’s request. What I’m asking, is there a way to INITIALLY appear, even if the user then hides you permanantly. i.e., can we make it “opt-out” instead of “opt-in”

Answer 1

This from the MSDN seems to suggest that you can’t:

There have been changes to the notification area that give the user much more control over what icons appear on the taskbar. All notification icons are now hidden by default and that visibility cannot be programmatically controlled. Only the user is allowed to choose which notification icons appear on the taskbar. When a notification balloon is displayed, the icon becomes temporarily visible, but even then a user can choose to silence them