4t Tray Minimizer

Editors’ Review

Download.com Staff May 15, 2011

Windows users have long wanted greater flexibility in the system tray, but it’s been up to developers like 4t Niagara Software to provide it. We looked at 4t Tray Minimizer Free, a free tool that can minimize any running application to the system tray, also known as the notification area. That’s enough on its own, but 4t Tray Minimizer can also roll up any window to just its title bar; make windows transparent; hide programs without displaying a system tray icon; set hotkeys for minimizing, maximizing, and launching applications; and toggle the entire system tray open and closed.

The program’s installer includes a setup wizard for setting basic options such as launching at startup and displaying a system tray icon. We were also able to configure how 4t Tray Minimizer appears in Windows menus as well as add programs to its exclusion list and set hotkeys and title bar buttons. The title bar is a set of small, mostly transparent set of buttons that blend perfectly with the Minimize, Maximize, and Close buttons in Windows’ upper right border and appear in any non-excluded program. We could quickly hide (minimize) a window to the system tray and restore just it, any other window, or all windows by right-clicking the program’s system tray icon and selecting our choice from an extensive menu of controls and options, including setup options. That’s valuable, but we also had fun with the control that minimizes windows to their title bars, which proved handy for keeping several intricate displays active and accessible but out of the way. The program offers several ways to activate its functions, including hotkeys, menus, and control icons. The program’s main interface is a horizontally split view displaying hidden windows above a list of Favorites; it’s quite basic but handy if you have a lot of apps hidden or just prefer an actual interface. However, there doesn’t seem to be anything you can’t do faster and more directly from 4t Tray Minimizer’s system tray icon.

We sure like 4t Tray Minimizer Free, which is a great example of how clever programming can add genuinely useful features to Windows that somehow were overlooked or omitted in the official release. If you’re one of the many Windows users who has longed for a better, more useful system tray, wait no more.

Full Specifications

What’s new in version 6.07

Improved compatibility with Windows 10 and 8
Improved compatibility for console windows
Ability to redefine action for the mouse click on the title bar
Inactive favorite windows can be automatically minimized to tray after certain idle time is reached
Localization support. French, German, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Portuguese, Russian languages added.
Auto check updates

General

Release August 14, 2017 Date Added August 14, 2017 Version 6.07

Operating Systems

Operating Systems Windows 10, Windows 2003, Windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows XP Additional Requirements None

Popularity

Total Downloads 60,494 Downloads Last Week 2 Report Software