Creating a System Tray Application with C#

This code snippet will show you how to create a minimal system tray application with C#.

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace MyTrayApp
{
    public class SysTrayApp : Form
    {
        [STAThread]
        public static void Main()
        {
            Application.Run(new SysTrayApp());
        }

        private NotifyIcon  trayIcon;
        private ContextMenu trayMenu;

        public SysTrayApp()
        {
            // Create a simple tray menu with only one item.
            trayMenu = new ContextMenu();
            trayMenu.MenuItems.Add("Exit", OnExit);

            // Create a tray icon. In this example we use a
            // standard system icon for simplicity, but you
            // can of course use your own custom icon too.
            trayIcon      = new NotifyIcon();
            trayIcon.Text = "MyTrayApp";
            trayIcon.Icon = new Icon(SystemIcons.Application, 40, 40);

            // Add menu to tray icon and show it.
            trayIcon.ContextMenu = trayMenu;
            trayIcon.Visible     = true;
        }

        protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
        {
            Visible       = false; // Hide form window.
            ShowInTaskbar = false; // Remove from taskbar.

            base.OnLoad(e);
        }

        private void OnExit(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            Application.Exit();
        }

        protected override void Dispose(bool isDisposing)
        {
            if (isDisposing)
            {
                // Release the icon resource.
                trayIcon.Dispose();
            }

            base.Dispose(isDisposing);
        }
    }
}

As always, you should add error handling where appropriate.

Tags: .NET, C#, System Tray