Can you send a signal to Windows Explorer to make it refresh the systray icons?

Question

This problem has been afflicting me for quite a while and it\'s been really annoying.

Every time I login after a reboot/power cycle the explorer takes some time to s

Answer 1

Take a look at this blog entry: REFRESHING THE TASKBAR NOTIFICATION AREA. I am using this code to refresh the system tray to get rid of orphaned icons and it works perfectly. The blog entry is very informative and gives a great explanation of the steps the author performed to discover his solution.

#define FW(x,y) FindWindowEx(x, NULL, y, L"")

void RefreshTaskbarNotificationArea()
{
    HWND hNotificationArea;
    RECT r;

    GetClientRect(
        hNotificationArea = FindWindowEx(
            FW(FW(FW(NULL, L"Shell_TrayWnd"), L"TrayNotifyWnd"), L"SysPager"),
            NULL,
            L"ToolbarWindow32",
            // L"Notification Area"), // Windows XP
            L"User Promoted Notification Area"), // Windows 7 and up
        &r);

    for (LONG x = 0; x < r.right; x += 5)
        for (LONG y = 0; y < r.bottom; y += 5)
            SendMessage(
                hNotificationArea,
                WM_MOUSEMOVE,
                0,
                (y << 16) + x);
}

Answer 2

Include following code with yours to refresh System Tray.

public const int WM_PAINT = 0xF;
[DllImport("USER32.DLL")]
public static extern int SendMessage(IntPtr hwnd, int msg, int character,
                                     IntPtr lpsText);

Send WM_PAINT Message to paint System Tray which will refresh it.
SendMessage(traynotifywnd, WM_PAINT, 0, IntPtr.Zero);