NotifyIcon and My Manager

Last week, my manager sent me a mail expressing his annoyance that sometimes his laptop (which has a dent in the cover, I might add) does not retain his KeyboardDelay setting. Basically, it's that setting in Control Panel | Keyboard that lets you specify how much delay you want for character repeating. He asked if there was anything I could do about it. He gave a me a use case, spec, and design in the following phrase: "Could you write me a small tray icon app that reapplies the setting?"

Now, a smart person knows that if the manager asks for something like this, it's a good idea to respond. It's not in my stated goals, but, as Martha Stewart says, "It's a good thing." BTW: Hi, Martha.

Anyway, I had not yet used .NET to do a systray app. I just have not needed to do so. I'm happy to report, that it is very, very easy. Too easy. You want to try? Just create a new Windows application in .NET, add the NotifyIcon from the tool box to your form. Then, you can add code so that when the form loads or if a user clicks a button, minimizes the form, whatever, the thing goes down to the systray. Here's the code to do it:

notifyIcon1.Visible = true;

notifyIcon1.Text = "Character Repeat Rate";

Put this code in whatever event that will cause the app to show up in the systray.

While I like the simplicity, it's a double-edged sword. We have made it so awfully easy for more developers to clutter my systray with apps that I never use! But, that's a problem for another day. The feedback from my manager was positive. That's a good thing.

Rock Thought for the day: I like Nirvana. I am never through thinking about the very essence of rock and roll- that it is even a "vocation", its scope of influence, its rawness, its proximity to the soul. Kurt, as anyone who has read much about him knows, dreamed of going big time from the moment he started learning the obligatory "Hello World" song of aspiring guitarists: "Stairway to Heaven." I wish I he were still around to see the fan mail pour in. If you missed out on the scene of the 90's or want to dive back in, check out the mega box set: With the Lights Out. It includes unreleased work and goodies along with the anthological tracks.

Rock on