98SE & Systray

Have my two 98SE Computers both gone completely nuts ???

I ran Startup Cop on both of them and out a 15-19 items shown System Tray does not give me the oppertuneity to even disable it. EVERYTHING ELSE else can be.

Explorer does not even show its face.

To me that is Windows OS telling me that my butt will be grass and it will play lawn mower if I shut it down.

I also take it to mean that Systray is an important to the PROPER operation of Windows.

I could be wrong but that is what I think.

BillyBob

 

In doing a little testing on a non-essential machine I used msconfig and shut systray down.

Before I had Kerio, SSSwitch, Volume, Norton AV Icons in the lower right corner.

After I had all but the Volume.

Is this saying that Systray only has an effect on MS Programs ?

BillyBob.

 

"Is this saying that Systray only has an effect on MS Programs ? "

Yes.

A few exchanges @ Computing Net: August

A few words on Wmiexe.exe: Wmiexe

Very little has been discussed or written on Systray.exe but my system has been without its use for sometime now and I have 3% more system resources without it and, this is no big deal, an extra 1Mb of unused physical memory to play with.

If any of the items mentioned in MSKB 128129 are brought into or are in play then Systray.exe will be woken up.

 

Well now that I have experimented with Systray and see that it can be done without is fine.

But on the other hand it is causing no problems so I see no reason for shutting it down.

In a day or two I will test a little more and see what effect it does have on resources on that machine.

I have never had resource or RAM problems in 95, 98 or 98SE anyway

BillyBob

 

Well I just could not wait so I took a shot at testing again.

Resources were 88,88,99 with systray loaded.

They were still 88,88,99 with systray not loaded.

Reloaded Systray and still 88,88,99

So I guess it stays laoded. I like having control of the Volume in the systray.

BillyBob

 

That's interesting, BillyBob. Did you restart after removing Systray? As you know we rarely get all, if any, of the resources back after just exiting a TSR.

I don't need Volume as I have EnsoniqMixer [the Creative Audio Config Utility] in the tray.

But that is the point. If you require Volume, Task Scheduler and the like then Systray.exe is required. In my case I have none of them so Systray.exe is surplus to requirements and anything surplus to requirements gets short order in my system. Wmiexe.exe in my system has been throttled by renaming it to Wmiexe.rem. I'm not recommending this action - much of what I do I wouldn't recommend - I don't mind getting my butt kicked but I'd not want anyone else to get theirs kicked following my steps!

"Well I just could not wait so I took a shot at testing again. "
We've had words in the past and no doubt a few more in the future but I usually cannot wait either. Its that passion which leads to words but also leads to knowledge.

 

These tests are always interesting. Testing does lead to knowledge.

Yes, I did restart Windows. But a warm restart does not always let release RAM & Resources completely.

So I shut systray down and did a complete shutdown/restart.

Then I had 90,90,99. But for some reason I lost another Icon. I lost my SSSwitch Icon and that is not MS

Re-enabled Systray. Warm restart. 88,88,99. All Icons back.

So I guess I can saftely say that this is another case that can be classified in the system/user requirement catagory.

So my suggestion/recommendataion is that Systray may or may not be needed but might be better to leave loaded.

BillyBob

 

In your case we have 2% then.

"I lost my SSSwitch Icon and that is not MS ". That's very odd. If SSSwitch needs Systray.exe then the authors should have ensured Systray.exe was loaded as the MS apps do which need it. Perhaps they assumed no one would stop Systray.exe loading at start up?

I'll endorse your suggestion/recommendation in view of the above quote, as it may not be an isolated case, but I'll leave my system as is as I need every ounce of System Resources I can get. I often question the need for my TSRs and remove those that fall into the 'not used as often nowadays' category. My current set has been in force for sometime now.

 

Perhaps they assumed no one would stop Systray.exe loading at start up?

That is very possible.

It may also be that the SSSwitch Icon was not lost on a warm restart beacuse Systray had been loaded but a cold restart killed it. Remember resources did not change untill the complete shutdown ?

I'll endorse your suggestion/recommendation in view of the above quote

Thank you.

as it may not be an isolated case,

Very, very posiible that is it not.

but I'll leave my system as is as I need every ounce of System Resources I can get.

You should. But unlike yourself I do not have to worry about resources.

Program conflicts created by the order I run them yes, I do have ( or did anyway till I found the problem ) And changed the run order which fixed the probelm.

BTW. The one apparently poorly written program that was causing the problem is no longer installed. I never liked it anyway. But it is on my Wifes' machine and causes no trouble at all.

BillyBob

 

"But it is on my Wifes' machine and causes no trouble at all. "

Perhaps it was written by a woman. Oh dear, I think I'll take my annual leave and come back after the dust has settled after writing that.

We could spend a lifetime trying to figure out why a piece of code experiences rejection on one machine and not another and, on the other hand, solve a problem in minutes. Considering how much code gets crunched per hour on our machines its a credit to those authors of our OS and apps for getting it right as much as they do.