A comprehensive system tray (notification area) implementation for WinUI 3 applications. Since WinUI 3 doesn't have built-in system tray support, this library provides a complete solution with context menus, icons, and window management.
WinUI 3 does NOT have native system tray support. This library implements system tray functionality using Win32 interop and provides a WinUI 3-friendly API.
- 🖱️ System tray icon with left/right click support
- 📋 Context menu with RTL language support
- 🌐 Multi-language support (English, Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Hebrew)
- 🪟 Window management (minimize to tray, close to tray)
- 🎨 Dark/light theme support
- ⌨️ Keyboard navigation support
- 🔄 Automatic taskbar recreation handling
- Add the source files to your WinUI 3 project
- Ensure you have the required dependencies:
- Microsoft.UI.Xaml
- Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK
public sealed partial class MainWindow : Window
{
private SystemTrayManager? systemTrayManager;
private WindowHelper windowHelper;
public MainWindow()
{
this.InitializeComponent();
// Initialize window helper
windowHelper = new WindowHelper(this);
// Initialize system tray manager
systemTrayManager = new SystemTrayManager(windowHelper)
{
IconToolTip = "My WinUI 3 App",
MinimizeToTray = true,
CloseButtonMinimizesToTray = true
};
// Set up settings action
systemTrayManager.OpenSettingsAction = () =>
{
// Navigate to your settings page
MyFrame.Navigate(typeof(SettingsPage), systemTrayManager);
};
}
}Place your icon file in the Assets folder (e.g., Assets/Windows.ico) and ensure it's included in your project with "Build Action" set to "Content".
// From .ico file
SystemTrayIcon.Icon = new IcoIcon("Assets/CustomIcon.ico");
// From system DLL (like shell32.dll)
SystemTrayIcon.Icon = new LibIcon("shell32.dll", 130);<Page x:Class="YourApp.SettingsPage"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<StackPanel Padding="20" Spacing="10">
<ToggleSwitch x:Name="TrayIconToggle"
Header="Show Tray Icon"
OffContent="Hidden"
OnContent="Visible"
Toggled="TrayIconToggle_Toggled"/>
<ToggleSwitch x:Name="MinimizeToTrayToggle"
Header="Minimize to Tray"
OffContent="Minimize to Taskbar"
OnContent="Minimize to Tray"
Toggled="MinimizeToTrayToggle_Toggled"/>
<ToggleSwitch x:Name="CloseButtonTrayToggle"
Header="Close Button Behavior"
OffContent="Exit App"
OnContent="Minimize to Tray"
Toggled="CloseToMinimizesInTrayToggle_Toggled"/>
<ComboBox x:Name="LanguageComboBox"
Header="Language"
SelectionChanged="LanguageComboBox_SelectionChanged">
<ComboBoxItem Tag="en">English</ComboBoxItem>
<ComboBoxItem Tag="fa">فارسی</ComboBoxItem>
<ComboBoxItem Tag="ar">العربية</ComboBoxItem>
</ComboBox>
</StackPanel>
</Page>SystemTrayManager
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
IsIconVisible |
bool | Gets or sets tray icon visibility |
LanguageCode |
string | Sets context menu language (e.g., "en", "fa", "ar") |
IconToolTip |
string | Sets the tooltip text for the tray icon |
MinimizeToTray |
bool | Enable/disable minimize to tray behavior |
CloseButtonMinimizesToTray |
bool | Change close button behavior |
| Method | Description |
|---|---|
ToggleWindowVisibility() |
Show/hide the main window |
RefreshContextMenu() |
Update context menu with current settings |
-
LeftClick: Fired when tray icon is left-clicked
-
RightClick: Fired when tray icon is right-clicked
- LTR
- English (default)
- RTL
- Persian/Farsi (fa, fa-IR)
- Arabic (ar, ar-SA)
- Urdu (ur, ur-PK)
- Hebrew (he, he-IL)
- Customization
// Override the default menu items by modifying the BuildMenuItems method
private void BuildMenuItems()
{
var texts = MenuTranslations.TryGetValue(languageCode, out string[]? value)
? value : MenuTranslations["default"];
menuItems =
[
new SystemTrayContextMenuWindow.Item("Custom Item", new Command(CustomAction)),
new SystemTrayContextMenuWindow.Item("--", null), // Separator
new SystemTrayContextMenuWindow.Item(texts[0], new Command(OpenSettings)),
new SystemTrayContextMenuWindow.Item("--", null),
new SystemTrayContextMenuWindow.Item(texts[1], new Command(() => Application.Current.Exit()))
];
}
private void CustomAction()
{
// Your custom action here
}Always dispose the SystemTrayManager when your application exits:
protected override void OnClosed(EventArgs e)
{
systemTrayManager?.Dispose();
windowHelper?.Dispose();
base.OnClosed(e);
}- Ensure the icon file exists in the correct path
- Check that the icon file is included in the project as "Content"
- Verify that IsIconVisible is set to true
- Check language code formatting (should be like "en", "fa-IR")
- Verify that RTL languages are properly handled if using them
- Ensure WindowHelper is properly initialized with your main window
- Check that window events are properly hooked up
See the included SettingsPage class for a complete example of how to integrate the system tray manager with your application's settings UI.
This code is provided as-is. Feel free to modify and use in your projects.
Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit pull requests or open issues for bugs and feature requests.