Tray Program Location

[LAUBO]

Hey guys,

In my system-tray, there are several 'programs' or 'services' or 'drivers' or whatever running, including Skype and Bluetooth Devices.

I would like to know where these programs/services are located. Obviously for Skype, I know the location. But I know it because I installed it. Now I would like to learn the location through the system-tray. In the case of Bluetooth, I do not know the location of the program/service, and it does not seem to be listed in the Task Manager. A similar argument can be made for the program/service/whatever controlling the volume, for example.

Laurens

 

[whs]

Check in Program Files and the System32 folder. You can get a clue if you look into the startup tab of msconfig.

 

[LAUBO]

Hey! Thanks for the suggestion. I had already done that, but, for example, for Bluetooth it only mentions 'Bluetooth support service' under the services. There is no startup 'tray.exe', nor anything similar in the System32/SysWow64.

Precisely because these methods (so far) failed, I was hoping there was a more direct route via the system-tray itself, in the sense of a 'right-click > wtf are you?' procedure.

 

[DavidE]

You can use Sysinternals Autoruns to get more info than msconfig/startup shows.
Autoruns for Windows
Look through Autoruns and see if you can find what you are looking for.

Do you have a Bluetooth device that might have installed the program you are looking for?
Can you post a screen print(s) of your msconfig startups?
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

You can use Sysinternals Process Explorer to get more info than Task Manager shows.
Process Explorer

You could also do a clean startup to try and determine what startup program adds what tray icon...
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ation-conflicts-performing-clean-startup.html

Some tray icons are "built into" Windows such as Action Center.

 

[LAUBO]

Thank you David.

The first program you suggested shocked me by showing the numerous things which run in my background... ugh. And here I was thinking CCleaner had allowed me to turn off all the non-sense.

Anyway, neither suggestions really brought me closer, specifically in the case of the 'bluetooth-tray' as there was no clear mention of any such program.

I'm pretty sure the bluetooth-service is the one controlling everything, though I'm not sure a 'service' can produce an icon in my tray.

 

[whs]

This is the path to the bluetooth service - but that may not help you either. Looks like some .dll.

C:\Windows\system32\svchost.exe -k bthsvcs

 

[DavidE]

Click on "Hide all Microsoft services" and see what it looks like.

Do you use (need) a Bluetooth device?
If you don't, you can uncheck the MS Bluetooth Support Service, reboot, and see what happens.
If you find you do need that service, you can re-enable it.

If you are using a Bluetooth Mouse/Keyboard, don't disable the service - you do need it.

 

[LAUBO]

Hey guys,

Turns out that this service is not what I see in my tray, nor is it the initiator of some sort of 'tray.exe' program, as even with the service disabled, the bluetooth-tray-icon appears. Still no idea what it is, where it is located and how it startsup automatically. Neither MsConfig, nor Autoruns, nor Process Explorer shows anything else seemingly related to Bluetooth...

 

[LAUBO]

Could it have something to do with .cpl files in System32 (such as bthprops.cpl)?
Control Panel (Windows) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[DavidE]

Seems like that might have something to do with it...

Do you have a Bluetooth icon in Control Panel?
Are you using a notebook with built in Bluetooth?
If so, can it be disabled or turned off?

 

[LAUBO]

Yes.
Yes.
Yes. I use Fn+F3 to toggle it on and off.

I have used Resource Hackers to change the icon inside the .cpl file. The change worked, but the original bluetooth icon still appears in the Control Panel and in the tray. Maybe I should first 'flush' the icons or something, make it reload the (new) icon from the .cpl file. Or something else ?

 

[DavidE]

You can rebuild the icon cache.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/49819-icon-cache-rebuild.html

Not sure it will do what you want after changing the icon, but can't hurt to try...