How to build a SystemTray app for Windows?

Question

I usually work on a Linux system, but I have a situation where I need to write a client app which would run on windows as a serivce. Can someone help me or direct to, on how to build a MenuBar app ( for example like dropbox) for 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.

Answer 1

You do this using the pywin32 (Python for Windows Extensions) module.

Example Code

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

Answer 2

I modified the SysTrayIcon.py script to work in Python 3

• You need to install pip install pywin32.
• After that you need to run python Scripts/pywin32_postinstall.p -install from 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.
• 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 (Plyer package).
• 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 - [e-mail] - 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)

Answer 3

There are (at least) a couple of libraries openly available for this now:

• pystray
• infi.systray

I just started using infi.systray in a project, and it's worked well for me. Here's how little code you need to do something very basic (taken from their docs):

from infi.systray import SysTrayIcon
def say_hello(systray):
    print("Hello, World!")
menu_options = (("Say Hello", None, say_hello),)
systray = SysTrayIcon("icon.ico", "Example tray icon", menu_options)
systray.start()