How to build a SystemTray app for Windows?
I usually work on a Linux system, but I have a situation where I need to write a client app that would run on windows as a service. Can someone help me or direct, on how to build a system tray app (for example like dropbox) for the windows environment, which gets started on OS startup and the icon sits in the TaskBar and on clicking the app icon presents a menu.
My scripting language is python. Thanks.
You do this using the pywin32 (Python for Windows Extensions) module.
Example Code for Python 2
Similar Question
To make it run at startup you could mess around with services but it's actually much easier to install a link to the exe in the users "Startup Folder".
Windows 7 and Vista
c:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Windows XP
c:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
I modified the SysTrayIcon.py Python 2 script to work in Python 3
- You need to install
pip install pywin32. - After that you need to run
python Scripts/pywin32_postinstall.py -installfrom your Python directory to register the dlls. - For the test script to run, you need to have some *.ico files in your working directory - you can find lots of them in your c:\windows* folders (search for
file:.ico). - To hide the program, you can run it via
pythonw.exe. - If you need balloon notifications, have a look at this post: https://stackoverflow.com/a/42085439/2441026 (
Plyerpackage). - To have a menu with only the Quit button you need to pass
menu_options = ((None, None, None),)- (or change the class to not always append menu_options).
#!/usr/bin/env python
# Module : SysTrayIcon.py
# Synopsis : Windows System tray icon.
# Programmer : Simon Brunning - [email protected] - modified for Python 3
# Date : 13 February 2018
# Notes : Based on (i.e. ripped off from) Mark Hammond's
# win32gui_taskbar.py and win32gui_menu.py demos from PyWin32
'''TODO
For now, the demo at the bottom shows how to use it...'''
import os
import sys
import win32api # package pywin32
import win32con
import win32gui_struct
try:
import winxpgui as win32gui
except ImportError:
import win32gui
class SysTrayIcon(object):
'''TODO'''
QUIT = 'QUIT'
SPECIAL_ACTIONS = [QUIT]
FIRST_ID = 1023
def __init__(self,
icon,
hover_text,
menu_options,
on_quit=None,
default_menu_index=None,
window_class_name=None,):
self.icon = icon
self.hover_text = hover_text
self.on_quit = on_quit
menu_options = menu_options + (('Quit', None, self.QUIT),)
self._next_action_id = self.FIRST_ID
self.menu_actions_by_id = set()
self.menu_options = self._add_ids_to_menu_options(list(menu_options))
self.menu_actions_by_id = dict(self.menu_actions_by_id)
del self._next_action_id
self.default_menu_index = (default_menu_index or 0)
self.window_class_name = window_class_name or "SysTrayIconPy"
message_map = {win32gui.RegisterWindowMessage("TaskbarCreated"): self.restart,
win32con.WM_DESTROY: self.destroy,
win32con.WM_COMMAND: self.command,
win32con.WM_USER+20 : self.notify,}
# Register the Window class.
window_class = win32gui.WNDCLASS()
hinst = window_class.hInstance = win32gui.GetModuleHandle(None)
window_class.lpszClassName = self.window_class_name
window_class.style = win32con.CS_VREDRAW | win32con.CS_HREDRAW;
window_class.hCursor = win32gui.LoadCursor(0, win32con.IDC_ARROW)
window_class.hbrBackground = win32con.COLOR_WINDOW
window_class.lpfnWndProc = message_map # could also specify a wndproc.
classAtom = win32gui.RegisterClass(window_class)
# Create the Window.
style = win32con.WS_OVERLAPPED | win32con.WS_SYSMENU
self.hwnd = win32gui.CreateWindow(classAtom,
self.window_class_name,
style,
0,
0,
win32con.CW_USEDEFAULT,
win32con.CW_USEDEFAULT,
0,
0,
hinst,
None)
win32gui.UpdateWindow(self.hwnd)
self.notify_id = None
self.refresh_icon()
win32gui.PumpMessages()
def _add_ids_to_menu_options(self, menu_options):
result = []
for menu_option in menu_options:
option_text, option_icon, option_action = menu_option
if callable(option_action) or option_action in self.SPECIAL_ACTIONS:
self.menu_actions_by_id.add((self._next_action_id, option_action))
result.append(menu_option + (self._next_action_id,))
elif non_string_iterable(option_action):
result.append((option_text,
option_icon,
self._add_ids_to_menu_options(option_action),
self._next_action_id))
else:
print('Unknown item', option_text, option_icon, option_action)
self._next_action_id += 1
return result
def refresh_icon(self):
# Try and find a custom icon
hinst = win32gui.GetModuleHandle(None)
if os.path.isfile(self.icon):
icon_flags = win32con.LR_LOADFROMFILE | win32con.LR_DEFAULTSIZE
hicon = win32gui.LoadImage(hinst,
self.icon,
win32con.IMAGE_ICON,
0,
0,
icon_flags)
else:
print("Can't find icon file - using default.")
hicon = win32gui.LoadIcon(0, win32con.IDI_APPLICATION)
if self.notify_id: message = win32gui.NIM_MODIFY
else: message = win32gui.NIM_ADD
self.notify_id = (self.hwnd,
0,
win32gui.NIF_ICON | win32gui.NIF_MESSAGE | win32gui.NIF_TIP,
win32con.WM_USER+20,
hicon,
self.hover_text)
win32gui.Shell_NotifyIcon(message, self.notify_id)
def restart(self, hwnd, msg, wparam, lparam):
self.refresh_icon()
def destroy(self, hwnd, msg, wparam, lparam):
if self.on_quit: self.on_quit(self)
nid = (self.hwnd, 0)
win32gui.Shell_NotifyIcon(win32gui.NIM_DELETE, nid)
win32gui.PostQuitMessage(0) # Terminate the app.
def notify(self, hwnd, msg, wparam, lparam):
if lparam==win32con.WM_LBUTTONDBLCLK:
self.execute_menu_option(self.default_menu_index + self.FIRST_ID)
elif lparam==win32con.WM_RBUTTONUP:
self.show_menu()
elif lparam==win32con.WM_LBUTTONUP:
pass
return True
def show_menu(self):
menu = win32gui.CreatePopupMenu()
self.create_menu(menu, self.menu_options)
#win32gui.SetMenuDefaultItem(menu, 1000, 0)
pos = win32gui.GetCursorPos()
# See http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/winui/menus_0hdi.asp
win32gui.SetForegroundWindow(self.hwnd)
win32gui.TrackPopupMenu(menu,
win32con.TPM_LEFTALIGN,
pos[0],
pos[1],
0,
self.hwnd,
None)
win32gui.PostMessage(self.hwnd, win32con.WM_NULL, 0, 0)
def create_menu(self, menu, menu_options):
for option_text, option_icon, option_action, option_id in menu_options[::-1]:
if option_icon:
option_icon = self.prep_menu_icon(option_icon)
if option_id in self.menu_actions_by_id:
item, extras = win32gui_struct.PackMENUITEMINFO(text=option_text,
hbmpItem=option_icon,
wID=option_id)
win32gui.InsertMenuItem(menu, 0, 1, item)
else:
submenu = win32gui.CreatePopupMenu()
self.create_menu(submenu, option_action)
item, extras = win32gui_struct.PackMENUITEMINFO(text=option_text,
hbmpItem=option_icon,
hSubMenu=submenu)
win32gui.InsertMenuItem(menu, 0, 1, item)
def prep_menu_icon(self, icon):
# First load the icon.
ico_x = win32api.GetSystemMetrics(win32con.SM_CXSMICON)
ico_y = win32api.GetSystemMetrics(win32con.SM_CYSMICON)
hicon = win32gui.LoadImage(0, icon, win32con.IMAGE_ICON, ico_x, ico_y, win32con.LR_LOADFROMFILE)
hdcBitmap = win32gui.CreateCompatibleDC(0)
hdcScreen = win32gui.GetDC(0)
hbm = win32gui.CreateCompatibleBitmap(hdcScreen, ico_x, ico_y)
hbmOld = win32gui.SelectObject(hdcBitmap, hbm)
# Fill the background.
brush = win32gui.GetSysColorBrush(win32con.COLOR_MENU)
win32gui.FillRect(hdcBitmap, (0, 0, 16, 16), brush)
# unclear if brush needs to be feed. Best clue I can find is:
# "GetSysColorBrush returns a cached brush instead of allocating a new
# one." - implies no DeleteObject
# draw the icon
win32gui.DrawIconEx(hdcBitmap, 0, 0, hicon, ico_x, ico_y, 0, 0, win32con.DI_NORMAL)
win32gui.SelectObject(hdcBitmap, hbmOld)
win32gui.DeleteDC(hdcBitmap)
return hbm
def command(self, hwnd, msg, wparam, lparam):
id = win32gui.LOWORD(wparam)
self.execute_menu_option(id)
def execute_menu_option(self, id):
menu_action = self.menu_actions_by_id[id]
if menu_action == self.QUIT:
win32gui.DestroyWindow(self.hwnd)
else:
menu_action(self)
def non_string_iterable(obj):
try:
iter(obj)
except TypeError:
return False
else:
return not isinstance(obj, str)
# Minimal self test. You'll need a bunch of ICO files in the current working
# directory in order for this to work...
if __name__ == '__main__':
import itertools, glob
icons = itertools.cycle(glob.glob('*.ico'))
hover_text = "SysTrayIcon.py Demo"
def hello(sysTrayIcon): print("Hello World.")
def simon(sysTrayIcon): print("Hello Simon.")
def switch_icon(sysTrayIcon):
sysTrayIcon.icon = next(icons)
sysTrayIcon.refresh_icon()
menu_options = (('Say Hello', next(icons), hello),
('Switch Icon', None, switch_icon),
('A sub-menu', next(icons), (('Say Hello to Simon', next(icons), simon),
('Switch Icon', next(icons), switch_icon),
))
)
def bye(sysTrayIcon): print('Bye, then.')
SysTrayIcon(next(icons), hover_text, menu_options, on_quit=bye, default_menu_index=1)