Exactly where is / what is the "System Tray?"

[Al Smith]

I believe programs in the system tray use up resources.
What is the "System Tray."

I believe programs shown in the rectangles at the bottom
of the screen are programs in the system tray which are
using resources.

What about the icons at the bottom-right of the screen to the
where the clock is (at least in my Sony)? Are those icons
in the system tray using resources?

 

[Tim Anderson]

I believe programs in the system tray use up resources.
What is the "System Tray."

The area usually at the extreme right of the task bar.

I believe programs shown in the rectangles at the bottom
of the screen are programs in the system tray which are
using resources.

From your next comment, it sounds like you mean icon in the main part of the
task bar. These represent windows of running applications. Clicking one of
these brings the associated window to the front, or minimizes it if already
at the front.

What about the icons at the bottom-right of the screen to the
where the clock is (at least in my Sony)? Are those icons
in the system tray using resources?

Each icon here also represents a running application. A difference is that
they may be apps that do not normally show a window. Generally,
right-clicking the icon displays a context menu, and double-clicking opens
them so they do show a window.

But you are right, everything here is using resources.

Tim

Why Tablet PC? see http://www.itwriting.com/tablet.php

 

[Ken Blake]

In

I believe programs in the system tray use up resources.
What is the "System Tray."

The System Tray is the informal name, used by most people, for
what is officially known as the "System Notification Area." It's
the area on the right end of the taskbar, where the clock is.

The icons there represent running programs. They are not
necessarily any different than any other running programs; it's
just that their authors coded them to minimize to the tray
instead of the main part of the task bar.

I believe programs shown in the rectangles at the bottom
of the screen are programs in the system tray which are
using resources.

Are you referring to the main part of the task bar--the part
between the Start button and the clock? That's *not* the System
Tray.

What about the icons at the bottom-right of the screen to the
where the clock is (at least in my Sony)?

Yes, *that* is the System Tray.

Are those icons
in the system tray using resources?

*All* running programs, whether shown in the system tray or on
the main part of the task bar (or not shown at all), use
resources. A program can't run without using *some* resources.
However, a much more important question, in my view is how *much*
they are using. *Some* programs, if they sit idle in the tray (or
on the task bar) aren't doing anything, use very few resources,
and have almost no impact on performance.

For example, I use a little background program called All-chars.
It sits idle in the tray, waits for a particular keypress, then
activates itself to enable me to produce special characters like
ñ and ç. It uses practically no cpu cycles, since it's idle most
of the time, and any memory it uses quickly gets paged out if it
isn't in use; so the impact of this on my computer's performance
is nearly nil.

Many people will tell you that it's important to not have too
many programs in the system tray, because having them hurts
performance. I don't agree; it just isn't that simple. There are
two important things to consider: what programs are running (in
the tray or not), and *which* programs they are. Some programs in
the tray are busy doing things all the time, and they will use
resources and hurt performance. Others sit idle most of the time
and have little to no effect on performance.

 

[Al Smith]

So, . . . . . .

If you can put a shortcut to a program on the desktop,
why would you put a PROGRAM icon in the
"System Notification Area?"

 

[Ken Blake]

In

So, . . . . . .

If you can put a shortcut to a program on the desktop,
why would you put a PROGRAM icon in the
"System Notification Area?"

No, no, you're confusing two very different things. A shortcut on
the desktop (or anywhere else) is a means of starting a program
that isn't yet running. An icon in the System Notification Area
represents a program that's already running. It's running because
it's performing some background task you want done (virus
checking or a firewall, for example) or because it gives you
instaneous access to a feature you are likely to want to use
(such as AllChars, which I mentioned below).