December 2, 2010

How to Minimize Skype to Windows 7 System Tray (Notification Area)

Due to the new design behavior guideline for Windows Taskbar on Windows 7, more and more software application has now making its icon to locate and stick at Windows 7 Taskbar when minimized, instead of minimizing to system tray (notification area). The most common example in Windows Live Messenger, and now Skype 4.2 (download Skype 4.2 Beta) follows the footstep.

In Skype 4.2 or any newer versions, Skype will be minimized to Taskbar, as an icon or button, when the Skype main window is closed. In previous versions, such as Skype viagra canadian 4.1, 4.0 and 3.0, Skype is typically minimized to system tray, which now known as notification area, right beside the clock on Windows Taskbar when the main window is closed.

Leaving the Skype program running on Windows Taskbar is not very useful to many users, especially notifications alert will pop up informing user when there is new incoming call, instant message (IM), files, contacts, events and etc. The Taskbar icon or button is prone to mistakenly or accidentally click and activate, and the Skype window is also subjected to rotation when user jumping around tasks with Alt+Tab or Win+Tab keyboard shortcuts.

In order to make Skype minimize and hide its icon into notification area or system tray when minimized, users can use the same trick to minimize Windows Live Messenger MSN Messenger to system tray in Windows 7. Here’s how to minimize Skype to notification tray on Windows 7.

Updated Skype Built-In Method

  1. In Skype, go to Tools -> Options.
  2. Then, click on Advanced tab to go to Advanced settings.
  3. Uncheck and untick the Keep Skype in the taskbar while I’m signed in option.

    Hide and Remove Skype from Taskbar

  4. Click Save button, and the Skype button or icon will be removed from Taskbar on minimize.

Note: You won’t see the option if the Skype is in compatibility mode.

Compatibility Mode Method

  1. Exit or quit from Skype program.
  2. Right click on Skype icon on Desktop or Skype shortcut in Start Menu, and select Properties.

    Skype Properties

  3. Go to Compatibility tab.
  4. Under “Compatibility Mode’ section, check and tick the checkbox for Run this program in compatibility mode for: option.
  5. In the below drop-down box, select Windows Vista (Service Pack 2).

    Run Skype in Vista Compatibility Mode to Minimize to System Tray in Win7

  6. Click OK.
  7. Start the Skype program, and now it should minimize to system tray.
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How to Rebuild the Icon Cache in Windows 7

information   Information
If one or more of your icons are not displaying correctly, or that your icon cache is corrupted, then you might consider rebuilding the icon cache to reset and reload the icon images into the icon cache.

Note   Note
This will not help with any of the following icon issues:

  • A shortcut's icon that is not displayed properly due to the source of the shortcut being moved or deleted. You may need to recreate a new shortcut directly from the source (ex: program's exe) file to replace it instead.
  • All icons for a specific file extension display the wrong icon. This may be do to setting the wrong association for what program to open the file extension instead. You can restore the default file extension's associations to fix this icon instead.

OPTION ONE

Automatically Rebuild the Icon Cache

NOTE: Thank you to Chris Sanders (aka Zidane24) for this updated BAT file version.

1. Click on the download button below to download the file below.

Rebuild_Icon_Cache.bat
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download

2. Save the file to your desktop, and run it.

3. Click on Run when prompted.

4. Follow the instructions in the command prompt to rebuild the Icon Cache

OPTION TWO

To Manually Rebuild the Icon Cache using the Command Prompt

1. Close and save anything that you are working on. This command will kill explorer and restart the computer when completed.

2. Open the Start Menu, and type cmd in the search box and press enter.

3. In the command prompt, Copy and Paste each command line below exactly as is and press enter after each command.

  • taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
  • CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
  • DEL IconCache.db /a
  • shutdown /r

4. The IconCache.db file has now been rebuilt.

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