I prefer long running applications to be nicely docked to the system tray (the area where clock appears in Windows), IMs fall in the same category of applications.
Recently, when I installed Windows Live Messenger on my Windows 7 machine, I noticed that it would remain on the Taskbar and would not dock itself on the System Tray. I hated that. After struggling for sometime, I realized it will remain like that on Windows 7. I hated it even more. Some more search and research revealed that there is a workaround, if I could fix the compatibility. I didn’t believe that initially coz I thought that at least Microsoft’s Applications will be fully compatible with Windows 7. But I was wrong. The workaround helped.
To move Windows Live Messenger to System Tray on a Windows 7 machine, do the following:
- Locate the Windows Live Messenger menu entry in the Start Menu > All Programs.
- Right click and select ‘Properties’ to open the properties window for Windows Live Messenger application.
- Switch to the ‘Compatibility’ tab and select ‘Run this program in compatibility mode for:’ check box, in the ‘Compatibility Mode’ section.
- Select ‘Windows Vista (Service Pack 2)’ from the drop down list, indicating that you want to run Windows Live Messenger in Compatibility Mode for Windows Vista SP2.
Apply the changes and there goes your Windows Live Messenger to the System Tray. :)
Hoping that Microsoft will fix this soon.
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