MyTrayIcon

Keeping your desktop a clean space can help you better organize your tasks, and start your daily routine without too much hassle. This can be done through what Windows alone puts at your disposal, or you can rely on applications like MyTrayIcon to create a custom launcher tight in the tray area.

In case you’re using a thumb drive with more portable applications, then this little utility fits just right in, since it too can be launched directly from a USB flash drive, since it requires no installation. Another advantage of portability is that the target PC stays intact, because registries are not modified.

As the name suggests, the application sits in the tray menu, and it’s also the place where you get to launch added programs. There are also some preset elements just to see how the new menu looks, and if you find it appealing. Sadly, the menu is brought up with the right mouse button, which can create a bit of frustration.

The menu editor is split into two sections, so you can easily view existing items, and select the ones you want to modify. Adding a new item doesn’t require much skill, nor effort. The caption field is the text that appears in the menu, while the program field needs to contain the path of the file or program to launch.

In case a program needs to be run under special circumstances, there’s the possibility to also include parameters. To make it look pretty, the application can load and display an icon, but you need to tell it where from. Unfortunately, there’s no option to make it run on startup, so you need to launch it every time Windows loads.

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that MyTrayIcon is a practical application you can use to keep your desktop clean, by storing all shortcuts in a customizable menu. It looks and feels a little rough around the edges, but adding items to the list is a walk in the park, and portability provides the flexibility you need.