TrayIconGuard v8 «Aurora» 🛡️✨#

📚 Documentation site · Knowledge base · docs/

Keep every notification-area (system tray) icon visible on Windows 10/11 — and keep them
that way. One native executable, zero dependencies, zero telemetry.

Read this in: English · Русский · Deutsch · 中文 · Español · हिन्दी

TrayIconGuard promotes icons that Windows hides in the overflow flyout back to the taskbar —
and an event-driven guard re-promotes them the moment Explorer hides them again (app start,
update, re-register). It writes the exact same registry store the Windows Settings toggle uses,
per user, without admin rights, and ships a modern Fluent GUI, a headless watcher mode and a
full CLI in one ~1 MB statically-linked exe that runs on a stock Windows install.

📋 Table of Contents#

• 🚀 Why TrayIconGuard?

• ✨ Key Features

• ⚡ Quick Start

• 📦 Installation Options

• 🖥️ The GUI Tour

• 🧰 CLI Reference

• 🏗️ How It Works

• 🔄 Self-Updates via Git

• 🌍 Languages

• 🌗 Themes & Appearance

• 🏢 Deployment & Automation

• 🔍 Troubleshooting

• 🛠️ Building From Source

• 🗂️ Repository Map

• 🤝 Contributing

• 📄 License

• 👨‍💻 Author & Support

• 🎯 Roadmap

🚀 Why TrayIconGuard?#

Windows remembers tray-icon visibility per icon — and forgets it constantly: every time an
application (re)registers its notification icon, Explorer recreates the registry subkey with
IsPromoted=0, and your icons vanish into the ^ flyout again. One-shot tweaks and .reg
files therefore decay within hours.

# What actually happens on a stock Windows 10/11 machine
App starts / updates / re-registers tray icon
        │
        ▼
Explorer recreates HKCU\Control Panel\NotifyIconSettings\{id}
with IsPromoted = 0          ← your icon just hid itself
        │
        ▼
TrayIconGuard watcher (RegNotifyChangeKeyValue, ~400 ms debounce)
        │
        ▼
IsPromoted = 1 restored      ← icon pops back to the taskbar, instantly

Real-World Benefits#

• ⚡ Instant: event-driven, not polling — fixes land in under half a second

• 🎯 Precise: per-icon control, exclusions, drag-to-reorder, three visibility modes

• 🛡️ Respectful: HKCU-only, standard user, no admin ever, no telemetry, opt-in autostart

• 📦 Tiny: one static exe (~1.05 MB) — no .NET, no runtimes, no redistributables

• 🔁 Self-healing: survives Explorer restarts, app updates and Windows logon cycles

✨ Key Features#

🛡️ Correctness & Safety#

• Settings-grade mechanics — writes IsPromoted in HKCU\Control Panel\NotifyIconSettings,
  the exact store the Windows Settings toggle uses (see docs/HOW-IT-WORKS.md)

• JSON snapshots (schema v8) with automatic backup before destructive operations,
  restore/export/delete manager, 30-snapshot retention

• Graceful degradation on ancient builds: clear status, legacy fallbacks, no crashes

• Stable exit codes (0/1/2/3) for scripting and RMM integration

🎯 Intelligent Guard Engine#

• Event-driven watcher: RegNotifyChangeKeyValue on the store subtree + debounce,
  optional polling fallback, new-icon discovery, pause/resume

• Visibility modes: Full (everything shown), Custom (your per-icon choices),
  Compact (hide all except TrayIconGuard) — from the tray menu or CLI

• Per-icon control: promote/hide/exclude with wildcard exclusions (onedrive.exe, *teams*)

• Drag-reorder of tray icons, persisted per PC

• Safe Explorer restart with cooldown and confirmation

🎨 Modern Fluent UI (2026)#

• Custom-drawn Win32/GDI+ interface: nav rail, cards, animated toggles, segmented controls,
  overlay scrollbars, Per-Monitor-V2 DPI, Windows 11 rounded corners & dark title bar

• Light / Dark / System themes with a quick switcher, persisted, auto-detected on first run

• Accent colors: follow Windows or 8 presets

• Responsive layout (nav rail collapses under 860 px), full keyboard traversal

📦 Embedded Installer#

• First-run wizard: scope (Only for me / For all users — one UAC prompt), install folder,
  autostart, Desktop & Start-Menu shortcuts — or just run once (portable)

• Apps & Features uninstall entry; --uninstall removes everything (auto-elevates when needed)

🔄 Git-Based Self-Updater#

• Opt-in check against update/stable.json in this repo, SHA-256-pinned download,
  self-replace & relaunch; manual button + optional daily auto-check (balloon only)

• Publication contract for release engineers: Updater_SKILL.MD

⚡ Quick Start#

# 1. Download the latest release (exe or zip)
https://github.com/paulmann/windows-show-all-tray-icons/releases/latest

# 2. Unblock (Mark-of-the-Web) and run — that's the whole installation
Right-click TrayIconGuard.exe → Properties → Unblock → OK
TrayIconGuard.exe

# 3. First run: the setup wizard asks scope / folder / shortcuts
#    …or pick “Just run once, no install” for portable mode

Headless / one-liners:

TrayIconGuard.exe --promote-all          # fix everything right now, then exit
TrayIconGuard.exe --watch                # headless guard (no GUI), e.g. from Task Scheduler
TrayIconGuard.exe --status --json        # machine-readable state for monitoring
TrayIconGuard.exe --check-update         # ask the git feed whether a new version exists

📦 Installation Options#

Uninstall: Apps & Features → TrayIconGuard, or TrayIconGuard.exe --uninstall.

🖥️ The GUI Tour#

Dark mode, About page with the update panel and links:

🧰 CLI Reference#

Exit codes: 0 ok · 1 invalid arguments · 2 unsupported OS · 3 partial failure.

🏗️ How It Works#

Primary store (Windows 10 1703+ / 11), per user, no admin:

HKCU\Control Panel\NotifyIconSettings\{<icon-id>}
    IsPromoted            DWORD      1 = on taskbar, 0 = overflow flyout
    ExecutablePath       REG_SZ     owner process
    IconResource         REG_SZ     path,-id
    IconSnapshot         REG_BINARY cached image
    LastNotificationAddedTime  REG_QWORD

Belt-and-suspenders legacy switches (optional): EnableAutoTray=0 and removal of
HideSCA* policies under HKCU\…\Policies\Explorer. Full research, decay analysis and the
do-not-touch list (StuckRects3 etc.): docs/HOW-IT-WORKS.md.

🔄 Self-Updates via Git#

• Feed: update/stable.json on main (schema, sha256 pins, notes)

• Client: WinHTTP download → BCrypt SHA-256 verify → rename-chain self-replace → relaunch

• Never silent: confirmation dialog for manual updates; auto-check is opt-in, ≤ once/24 h,
  balloon-only

• CI pins the feed from the bytes the release actually serves (scripts/make_feed.py),
  so feed and assets can never disagree — see Updater_SKILL.MD

🌍 Languages#

30 locales with per-string English fallback and OS-language auto-detect on first run
(live-switchable in Appearance → Language):

Details & translation guide: docs/I18N.md.

🌗 Themes & Appearance#

• Light / Dark / System — persisted, auto-detected on first run, quick switcher in the
  title bar; Windows 11 immersive dark title bar & rounded corners

• Accent: follow Windows colorization or 8 built-in presets

• Motion: 140 ms toggle slides & hover states (disableable), compact-row mode

• Per-Monitor-V2 DPI-correct everywhere

🏢 Deployment & Automation#

• Task Scheduler / GPO logon script: TrayIconGuard.exe --watch (headless) or
  --minimized (GUI in tray)

• RMM / monitoring: --status --json, stable exit codes, 14-day rotating logs in
  %LOCALAPPDATA%\TrayIconGuard\logs

• Fleet safety: per-user scope needs no admin; machine scope via --install-machine
  from an elevated context

• Store-ready: MSIX manifest + assets + packing script in store/ — see
  docs/STORE.md

🔍 Troubleshooting#

More: docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md · wiki FAQ

🛠️ Building From Source#

# Cross-compile on Linux (static, stripped, zero-dependency exe)
sudo apt install g++-mingw-w64-x86-64 cmake
./scripts/build.sh          # gates: 0 warnings, manifest check, OS-DLL-only audit
./scripts/package.sh        # zip + SHA256SUMS

# Or native MSVC on Windows
cmake -S . -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64
cmake --build build --config Release

CI runs both on every push (ubuntu cross + windows MSVC) and publishes releases on v* tags.
Details: docs/BUILD.md.

🗂️ Repository Map#

🤝 Contributing#

Issues and PRs are welcome. Please keep: zero runtime dependencies, HKCU-only safety model,
the warning-free build gate (-Wall -Wextra) and the feed contract of Updater_SKILL.MD.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for the ground rules and the Code of Conduct; report security problems through SECURITY.md.

📄 License#

PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0 — free for noncommercial use;
commercial licensing: contact the author.

👨‍💻 Author & Support#

Mikhail Deynekin · icons@Deynekin.com · Deynekin.com ·
GitHub ·
Knowledge base (wiki) ·
License

🎯 Roadmap#

• Code-signing pipeline (SmartScreen reputation)

• RTL layout mirroring for Arabic/Hebrew/Persian/Urdu

• MSI packaging for SCCM/Intune Win32 apps

• ARM64 native build

_{Made with 🧡 for tidy taskbars. TrayIconGuard is not affiliated with Microsoft.}