Windows.XP.in.a.Nutshell.1002005.2Ed [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

The notification area, commonly known as
the

Tray , is the small area at the far right (or
bottom) of the
Taskbar, which, by default,
holds the clock and
the tiny, yellow speaker icon. With the exception of the
clock, the purpose of the tray is to hold status icons (see Figure 3-17) placed there by Windows and other running
applications. Hold the mouse cursor over the clock to see the date
temporarily or right-click on an empty area of the Taskbar and click
Properties to turn the clock on or off and change other settings.
(Sorry, no permanent date is available without a third-party
utilitysee http://www.annoyances.org/.)

Figure 3-19. The Notification Area (Tray), located on the far end of your Taskbar, holds the clock and icons for some running processes

The Tray can be a convenient place for applications to display
information and quick access to certain features, but there is little
standardization among Tray
icons. Some icons are clicked,
others are double-clicked, others require a right-click, and some
don't get clicked at all. Some flash, some
don't. Most icons can be disabled, but some just
won't go away. Most support tooltips, so you can
find out what each icon does by holding the mouse over it for a
second or two.

The only way to turn the notification area off completely is to
hide each of the icons (and the clock) individually. However, you can
selectively hide icons by going to Control Panel
[Appearance and Themes]
Taskbar and Start Menu
Taskbar tab
Customize. See "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" in Chapter 4 for more information, and See Chapter 5 for additional settings that affect the
Taskbar, the notification area, and the icons that routinely appear
there.

Notes

• Right-click or double-click on the
  
  clock when it is displayed to adjust
  the system date and time. (You can also get there by opening the Date
  and Time properties in the Control Panel.)

• The System Tray is available to any application that chooses to
  useor misuseit. For example, both AOL and RealPlayer
  install a startup icon in the System Tray (as well as just about
  anywhere else they can put one)a clear abuse of the intended
  purpose.

• The language indicator is useful only if
  multiple keyboard layouts are enabled. Click on the indicator to
  display a pop-up menu that lets you switch between available keyboard
  layouts.

• The
  power status indicator is generally
  useful only on laptops. It shows a plug when the system is connected
  to AC power, and a battery when the system is running on the battery.
  The height of the color in the battery gives a rough idea of how much
  power is left; to get a more precise estimate, hold the pointer over
  the indicator until a Tooltips bubble pops up showing the percentage
  of the remaining charge.

• The PC
  card indicator gives you a quick way to get to the Control Panel
  PC Card property sheet.
  This indicator is useful if you will be taking PC cards in and out of
  your system frequently, since the system prefers to be notified
  before you do so.

• The
  "Super-Fast User
  Switcher" is a notification area-based tool that
  allows you to switch between configured users simply by clicking on
  its tray icon; see Appendix D for details.