{"id":301925,"date":"2021-07-17T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-17T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/did-you-know-windows-has-never-had-a-system-tray\/"},"modified":"2021-07-17T15:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-07-17T12:00:00","slug":"did-you-know-windows-has-never-had-a-system-tray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/did-you-know-windows-has-never-had-a-system-tray\/","title":{"rendered":"#Did You Know? Windows Has Never Had a \u201cSystem Tray\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2a9b0d771e2\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2a9b0d771e2\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/did-you-know-windows-has-never-had-a-system-tray\/#Thats_a_Notification_Area_Thank_You\" >That\u2019s a Notification Area, Thank You!<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/did-you-know-windows-has-never-had-a-system-tray\/#The_Term_%E2%80%9CSystem_Tray%E2%80%9D_Probably_Led_to_Bloatware\" >The Term \u201cSystem Tray\u201d Probably Led to Bloatware<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/did-you-know-windows-has-never-had-a-system-tray\/#Why_Does_Everyone_Think_Its_Called_the_System_Tray\" >Why Does Everyone Think It\u2019s Called the System Tray?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/did-you-know-windows-has-never-had-a-system-tray\/#Windows_10_Calls_It_the_%E2%80%9CSystem_Tray%E2%80%9D%E2%80%A6_Once\" >Windows 10 Calls It the \u201cSystem Tray\u201d\u2026 Once<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p><strong>&#8220;#Did You Know? Windows Has Never Had a \u201cSystem Tray\u201d&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"type:primaryImage wp-image-685773 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/neon-question-marks.jpg?width=398&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1 400w, https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/neon-question-marks.jpg?width=1198&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, 400w, 1200w\" src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/neon-question-marks.jpg?width=1198&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"Neon question mark signs\" width=\"650\" height=\"300\" data-crediturl=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/image-vector\/vector-set-realistic-isolated-neon-sign-1488044888\" data-credittext=\"ComicSans\/Shutterstock.com\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"type:primaryImage imagecredit\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/image-vector\/vector-set-realistic-isolated-neon-sign-1488044888\">ComicSans\/Shutterstock.com<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Windows has never actually had a \u201csystem tray.\u201d For 25 years, we\u2019ve all been getting it wrong. Microsoft insists those icons are in a \u201cnotification area.\u201d So where did the term \u201csystem tray\u201d come from? And why does Windows 10 call it the \u201csystem tray\u201d\u2014but only once?<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Thats_a_Notification_Area_Thank_You\"><\/span>That\u2019s a Notification Area, Thank You!<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>If you poke around on Windows 10\u2014or Windows 7, or Windows Vista, or Windows XP, or Windows 98\u2014you won\u2019t find any references to the term \u201csystem tray\u201d in the Windows interface.<\/p>\n<p>Under Windows 10\u2019s taskbar settings (Settings &gt; Personalization &gt; Taskbar), the settings for the \u201csystem tray\u201d icons <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ear under \u201cNotification area.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-685769 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/notification-area-settings-on-windows-10.png?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"Notification area options on Windows 10's Taskbar settings screen.\" width=\"650\" height=\"350\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Term_%E2%80%9CSystem_Tray%E2%80%9D_Probably_Led_to_Bloatware\"><\/span>The Term \u201cSystem Tray\u201d Probably Led to Bloatware<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Does it really matter what it\u2019s called\u2014\u201cnotification area\u201d or \u201csystem tray\u201d? Maybe. Perhaps there\u2019s a larger philosophical difference at play here.<\/p>\n<p>For decades, many Windows desktop applications have used the \u201csystem tray\u201d as a place to hide themselves. Often, you buy a new computer and find many preinstalled utilities running in the background, usually buried in the \u201csystem tray.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The problem got so bad that Windows allowed you to hide icons behind a little arrow so they don\u2019t fill your entire taskbar\u2014and even automatically hides many of them for you! That\u2019s called the \u201coverflow area\u201d or \u201coverflow section,\u201d by the way\u2014Microsoft doesn\u2019t call it a tray.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-685770 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/notification-area-overflow.png?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"The taskbar notification area expanded.\" width=\"650\" height=\"214\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><\/p>\n<p>That makes some sense if this is just considered a \u201csystem tray\u201d that developers can throw anything into, like a junk drawer.<\/p>\n<p>However, Microsoft really, really wants developers to think of this as a \u201cnotification area\u201d that\u2019s meant for displaying notification and status information.<\/p>\n<p>Microsoft\u2019s <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows\/win32\/shell\/notification-area\">documentation for developers<\/a> is clear on this subject: \u201cIt is\u2026 not intended for quick program or command access.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of course, a Windows PC isn\u2019t an iPhone. While Apple can force developers to follow its best-practice guidelines or ban their apps from the App Store, Microsoft can\u2019t require developers to obey its guidelines. But maybe\u2014just maybe\u2014if everyone thought of it as a \u201cnotification area,\u201d developers would be less tempted to throw icons there.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Why_Does_Everyone_Think_Its_Called_the_System_Tray\"><\/span>Why Does Everyone Think It\u2019s Called the System Tray?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>So why do so many people call it the \u201csystem tray\u201d? You probably feel like you\u2019ve even seen Microsoft call it the \u201csystem tray\u201d somewhere, right? Hasn\u2019t Microsoft called it that?<\/p>\n<p>Yes, Microsoft employees have repeatedly called it the \u201csystem tray\u201d in various documents over the years, much to the apparent consternation of the Windows shell team, so named because they\u2019re in charge of the Windows desktop \u201cshell,\u201d which includes the taskbar.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/deeplink?id=2QzUaswX1as&amp;mid=24542&amp;u1=htg\/685748&amp;murl=https%3A%2F%2Fdevblogs.microsoft.com%2Foldnewthing%2F20030910-00%2F%3Fp%3D42583\">Microsoft\u2019s Raymond Chen<\/a> wrote about this issue back in 2003. Amusingly enough, people still call it the \u201csystem tray\u201d and the confusion continues 17 years later.<\/p>\n<p>Telling the official history of the system tray, Chen points out that early development builds of Windows 95 had a \u201ctray\u201d instead of a taskbar:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In early builds of Windows 95, the taskbar originally wasn\u2019t a taskbar; it was a folder window docked at the bottom of the screen that you could drag\/drop things into\/out of, sort of like the organizer tray in the top drawer of you desk. That\u2019s where the name \u201ctray\u201d came from. (Some might argue that this was taking the desktop metaphor a bit too far.)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Microsoft discarded this idea and replaced it with the Windows 95 taskbar. As Raymond tells it, Microsoft wiped all mentions of the \u201ctray\u201d everywhere from the shell documentation. No more tray.<\/p>\n<p>Later, Microsoft added notification icons to the taskbar. Those icons were placed in the taskbar\u2019s \u201cnotification area.\u201d Simple.<\/p>\n<p>So what happened? How did the word \u201ctray\u201d reappear? Chen offers up his best theory:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I think the reason people started calling it the \u201csystem tray\u201d is that on Win95 there was a program called \u201csystray.exe\u201d that displayed some icons in the notification area: volume control, PCMCIA (as it was then called) status, battery meter. If you killed systray.exe, you lost those notification icons. So people thought, \u201cAh, systray must be the component that manages those icons, and I bet its name is \u2018system tray\u2019.\u201d Thus began the misconception that we have been trying to eradicate for over eight years\u2026 [<strong>Editor\u2019s note<\/strong>: It\u2019s been over 25 years now!]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-685771 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/notification-area-on-windows-95.png?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"The notification area on Windows 95's taskbar.\" width=\"650\" height=\"221\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The notification area on Windows 95. It looks a bit like a tray, doesn\u2019t it?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>So people called it the wrong thing. At least Microsoft itself communicated clearly, right? Well, about that\u2026.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Even worse, other groups [at Microsoft] (not the shell) picked up on this misnomer and started referring it to the tray in their own documentation and samples, some of which even erroneously claim that \u201csystem tray\u201d is the official name of the notification area.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>So that\u2019s it. If even Microsoft\u2019s employees can\u2019t even get the official name right in official documentation, it\u2019s no wonder that everyone else is confused.<\/p>\n<p>Do we think it matters? Not really. How-To Geek is full of articles calling this feature the \u201csystem tray\u201d because that\u2019s what people call it\u2014even many people at Microsoft! But we also try to call it the \u201cnotification area.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re interested in this, we encourage you to read <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/deeplink?id=2QzUaswX1as&amp;mid=24542&amp;u1=htg\/685748&amp;murl=https%3A%2F%2Fdevblogs.microsoft.com%2Foldnewthing%2F20030910-00%2F%3Fp%3D42583\">Raymond Chen\u2019s entire blog post<\/a>. His blog, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/deeplink?id=2QzUaswX1as&amp;mid=24542&amp;u1=htg\/685748&amp;murl=https%3A%2F%2Fdevblogs.microsoft.com%2Foldnewthing%2F\">The Old New Thing<\/a>, is packed full of interesting facts like this that you just can\u2019t find elsewhere outside Microsoft. For example, there\u2019s a blog post that explains why Windows stores the system time in local time instead of Coordinated Unversal Time (UTC), like other operating systems.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Windows_10_Calls_It_the_%E2%80%9CSystem_Tray%E2%80%9D%E2%80%A6_Once\"><\/span>Windows 10 Calls It the \u201cSystem Tray\u201d\u2026 Once<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>If you dig into Windows 10\u2019s settings, you\u2019ll find it called the \u201cnotification area\u201d everywhere. Its settings are located at Settings &gt; Personalization &gt; Taskbar &gt; Notification Area. The naming is very precise.<\/p>\n<p>Except\u2026 If you head to Settings &gt; Ease of Access &gt; Narrator, you\u2019ll find an option called \u201cMinimize Narrator Home to the system tray.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-685768 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/system-tray-in-windows-10.png?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"Windows 10's Narrator options referring to a &quot;system tray.&quot;\" width=\"650\" height=\"418\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><\/p>\n<p>So what does that tell us? It\u2019s pretty clear\u2014the developers working on the Narrator screen-reader feature are separate from the team working on the Windows shell at Microsoft.<\/p>\n<p>25 years after Windows 95, Microsoft still can\u2019t stamp even out the \u201csystem tray\u201d name internally. Call it the \u201csystem tray\u2019 all you like. Everyone knows what that means.<\/p>\n<p>Does it really matter? Again, no. But it\u2019s pretty funny.<\/p>\n<p>(And maybe Windows software would\u2019ve abused it less if it was clearly for notifications instead.)<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p>By the way, we took the Narrator settings screenshot on Windows 10\u2019s May 2020 Update. We wouldn\u2019t be surprised if Microosft cleans up the interface and removes the term \u201csystem tray\u201d in a future update. It will probably pop right back up again in the future, though.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n setTimeout(function(){\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s) } (window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n   fbq('init', '335401813750447');\n   fbq('track', 'PageView');\n  },3000);\n<\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/685748\/did-you-know-windows-has-never-had-a-system-tray\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Did You Know? Windows Has Never Had a \u201cSystem Tray\u201d&#8221; ComicSans\/Shutterstock.com Windows has never actually had a \u201csystem tray.\u201d For 25 years, we\u2019ve all been getting it wrong. Microsoft insists those icons are in a \u201cnotification area.\u201d So where did the term \u201csystem tray\u201d come from? And why does Windows 10 call it the \u201csystem&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":301926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/neon-question-marks.jpg?height=200p&trim=2,2,2,2","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-301925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}