Tech Support > Microsoft Windows > Customizing > Change popup text of icon in system tray
Change popup text of icon in system tray
Posted by Alex Coleman on October 3rd, 2005


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!

Posted by Wesley Vogel on October 3rd, 2005


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 news:96E4C256D2C6C31E75@204.153.244.170,
Alex Coleman <coalie@nomail.com> hunted and pecked:
> 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!

Posted by Cliff Heller on October 4th, 2005


Alex Coleman <coalie@nomail.com> writes:

> 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!


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.


--
"Letters may be used to construct words, phrases and sentences that may be
deemed offensive."
-Warning label on children's alphabet blocks

Posted by John Shaw on October 7th, 2005


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.



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