Change popup text of icon in system tray

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alex Coleman
  • Start date Start date
A

Alex Coleman

Where can I change the text in the popup for an icon in the system
tray?

I have this application which wants to name its author in great
detial in the popup and I want to remove that name!
 
Right click Desktop | Properties | Appearances tab |
Advanced button | Item: Tooltip |
Color 1: is the back ground color
Color: is the font color

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
Right click Desktop | Properties | Appearances tab |
Advanced button | Item: Tooltip |
Color 1: is the back ground color
Color: is the font color

Wes
Click to expand...


Wes, you have slightly misread my posting.
I want to change the *text* in the popup.
 
You mean the words that are displayed? Good luck!

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
Alex Coleman said:
Where can I change the text in the popup for an icon in the system
tray?

I have this application which wants to name its author in great
detial in the popup and I want to remove that name!
Click to expand...

The text exists somewhere. Get a hex editor and search the executable &
dll's. Unicode strings are not the same as ASCII. They look like ASCII
characters with nulls in between them.

You can't just delete bytes in a binary file, you have to overwrite them
- you can make an existing string shorter (which is what you want) but
not longer. Put a null in to terminate the string early.

If this doesn't make sense to you, then I don't recommend trying it.
 
I've developed software (some of which use SysTray icons w/tooltips). The
application may be looking to see what the current text is displaying...and,
the code may be set up to update it as needed (again, depending on the app).

Using any low-level tools (to modify the app) could cause serious problems.
For example, if the pop-up text contains a status message (like "Currently
Connected" or something like that), the app may be looking to see if the
status is currently in the tooltip... if it's not, it may execute additional
code to update it. If it can't update it, it may perpetually keep trying,
wasting CPU time, etc.

Or...it may be a simple tweak that doesn't cause a problem.

Regardless... even knowing how to manipulate the systray with the Windows
API, I personally would never try modifying the app itself.

HOWEVER:

It may be simpler than that: In the folder where the app is located, check
for an INI file (or a config file, etc.). This info MIGHT be in here
(doubtful, but you never know). Another place to check is the registry (a
bit more dangerous).

The two typical places where apps store their registry software settings
are:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\<Company Name>\<Product Name>

and/or

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\<Company Name>\<Product Name>

You may see an entry in the INI/config file or the Registry that has this
information, or, some sort of toggle for the tooltip.
 
Back
Top