Notification Area in Task Bar

First question: how do I add an application to the Notification Area?

Second: I have some applications running (namely, GoBack and Ad-Watch). Their icons used to appear in the Notificatin Area, and suddenly disappeared. The apps are still running (so says Task Manager), but if I want to see their window, and I click the icon shortcut on the Start/Programs menu, or even in Explorer in the EXE file, nothing happens. The app. is running, but I cannot access its interface.

Third: In right click the Notification Area, the Customize Notificatins, a window pops-up. There are two sections: Present Items and past Items. The lacking apps. forementioned are in "Past Items ". I changed their behavior from "hide when inactive" to "always show ", but to no avail. How can I move the items from Past to Current? I feel that this is the problem.

Fourth: I've found in MS database, a description on how to delete "past items ". But it deletes ALL the Past Items, and they don't give a way to delete them selectively. My Past Items section is cluttered with old and unnecessary programs.

Thank you very much, I tried to be as clear as possible. Please forgive me if I didn't succeed.

haim

 

1. Adding an icon to the system tray (notification area) for programs which don't do it automatically requires third-party software. Do a Google search for "add icon to system tray" and among the thousands of hits, there should be something to meet your needs.

2. Once you get access to the system tray icon, try right clicking the icon and see if you get any useful choices.

3. Check to see if "Lock Toolbars" is checked when you right click on the task bar. If so, click on it to uncheck it and then try changing to "always show" - being sure to click on OK when you close the task bar properties window after making the changes.

4. As for selectively deleting system tray icons, take a look at this page.

 

Thank you, Miz. A good answer. My search found an URL of freeware, hundreds of free applications:

http://www.mnsi.net/~jhlavac/freeware/systray.htm

I find it difficult to believe in a free meal, let alone hundreds of them. I'd like to read an illustrated comment.

About my problem, I still don't know why some icons disappear from my Notification Area (SysTray is the pre-windows XP name, but hadn't you refreshed my brain RAM, I'd never succeed with my search). But I found a workaround: I open Task Manager, end the application, and open it again. And here the icon is back in the NA, where it belonged.

Thanks again,
haim