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Back when computers didn’t have much system memory, it was hugely important to have strict control over what software continues to run in the background or starts with Windows. If too much was running the system would quickly become sluggish or unresponsive. Although this is less of an issue these days because computers are equipped with more memory, it’s still a good idea not having too many programs present in the background to keep your system running as fast and trouble free as possible.

A lot of programs that run in the background or start with Windows will have an associated icon in the system tray at the bottom right corner of your desktop. Although officially called the Windows Notification Area by Microsoft, most people refer to this part of the task bar as the system tray. If you’re not careful this area can fill up with tons of icons, some of which give little or no information about what the program associated with the icon actually is.

If you are having difficulty in identifying which program any of your system tray icons are related to, it pays to find out so you can disable it if the program or its tray icon isn’t required. Here we show you 4 ways to help find out.

1. Anvir Task Manager

Most of the popular task management utilities like Process Explorer or Process Hacker don’t have the ability to show specifically which tray icon is being used by which process. Thankfully there is one task manager we know of that can actually display this information, and that is Anvir Task Manager (both paid and free versions).

Firstly run the Anvir program, the freeware portable version will work and is recommended to avoid the adware in the setup installer. Then click on the Processes tab. You can get the relevant information for a tray icon by hovering over the process name that looks like the tray icon you are trying to identify, the tooltip will show a Tray Icon entry if the process has one along with its tooltip text when you hover over the icon.

The second method is better if the icon in the tray is different to its running process making it harder to identify. In the Processes tab right click on the column headers and choose Tray Icon from the context menu. A new column will be available in the window with the specific icons for all tray items, click the header to sort all the items with a tray icon

Anvir can obviously give you a great deal of information about the process connected with the tray icon, including where it’s located, its startup states and memory usage. An old Raymond.cc giveaway version of Anvir Task Manager Standard which originally cost $29.95 is available and still works, refer to our task manager replacement article for details.

Download Anvir Task Manager

2. System Tray Cleaner

System Tray Cleaner is a freeware utility by Innovative Solutions, the company behind the very well known Advanced Uninstaller Pro. As the name would suggest, System Tray Cleaner is primarily designed to give information about what is running in the system tray and then you have the opportunity to disable or uninstall whatever isn’t required. A by product of this is it also shows exactly what’s running in the tray along with which executable the icon belongs to.

Once installed the program is accessed via the system tray itself, click on the tray icon and choose “Display info for tray items only”. After a progress window has been displayed for a short while a web page will open in your browser listing all the current tray icons. From here you can see which executable is creating the icon, its description and whether it’s currently visible on the taskbar or in the hidden icons menu.

Clicking any of the icons on the web page will allow you to view more detailed information and perform tasks for dealing with the icon and its process, such as uninstalling, ending the task or removing the item from system startup.

Download System Tray Cleaner

3. Windows System Tray Scan Utility

This tool has one major limitation which is it doesn’t work on 64-bit versions of Windows. Even though it’s from way back in 2006, all 32-bit versions of Windows work OK, including Windows 8/8.1. Windows System Tray Scan Utility is a small and simple tool which works from the command line and displays a list of running processes which have a related icon showing in the system tray.

Being a command line tool the Tray Scan utility is portable, so you need to open an administrator Command Prompt to run it. Press the Win key, type cmd then press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to open a prompt in admin mode. Then type {path}SysTrayScanCmd or drop the tool onto the Command Prompt window.

It shows a list of PIDs, the program’s path, and the number of visible and hidden icons. Note the Hidden column doesn’t relate to the icons hidden in the “show hidden icons” sub menu on the Windows taskbar.

Download Windows System Tray Scan Utility

4. Shell Tray Info

Being quite old and from the XP era, Shell Tray Info suffers with similar compatibility issues to the Tray Scan Utility above. It won’t work on any 64-bit versions of Windows and anything newer than XP will need to run the tool in compatibility mode. To do that right click ShellTrayInfo.exe > Properties > Compatibility tab > tick “Run this program in compatibility mode for” and make sure Windows XP is selected in the drop down menu.

After running the program it will display each tray icon along with the associated tooltip which appears when you hover your mouse over the icon, and also the path to the process responsible for the tray icon. It can inform you if certain icons are hidden, the volume icon above has been intentionally hidden in Control Panel.

Shell Tray Info can also move icons in the tray left or right and there’s a testing option to emulate left, right or double mouse clicks on the tray icon, although this latter function didn’t work too well when we tried it.

What Is Running With Violet

Download Shell Tray Info

Important Note: Tools 1, 3 and 4 above have a slight limitation where they will only show the icons currently visible in the system tray and not those shown in the hidden icons sub menu. If you want to identify icons in the hidden icons menu, click on the tray menu button > Customize, and tick the “Always show all icons and notifications on the taskbar” box. If you wish to re hide the icons again afterwards, simply leave the window open and untick the option when you’re finished.

You might also like:

5 Ways to Find What Programs are Accessing Your Hard Disk Drive6 Ways to Optimize or Reduce Memory Usage for Running ProgramsDetermine Program Path from Task Manager for Running Process8 Tools to Stealth or Hide Running Program from Appearing in Taskbar or Traybar10 Ways to Run Programs as Administrator in Windows

What can we use now that systrayscancmd cannot be used. Is there some COM or WMI interface which can query and be run from powershell?

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Hi Mate

You have so much knowledge. i am glad you have time to deliver it to us disciples. Apart from the obvious comment if its a system tray (by everyone who uses it) then why call it something else MS need to move with the times. “Googling” became common knowledge.
At my age (51) I should not make 2 changes per month, 1 am trying google chrome (much to look at), as my secure banking browser (to replace opera), the other was, drop MS Outlook for what was to be unsatisfactory Thunderbird due to no Calendar and lo and behold Vista Mail (never used or knew of until this weekend). Thanks for the time you have to send us the constant high quality info, from Brian (in New Zealand)

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thank you! it’s very useful!

Reply

Thanks Ray

Reply

good post, Thank you Raymond. :)

Reply

Thanks Raymond.

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THX MAN 4 the tip ! :)

Reply

Ah.. what another wonderful apps you ve shared bro. Tks.
Pertaining abt the wrong name, just tell these ppl : “You Give PC A Bad Name” hahaaa.

Reply

Another way which I tried but to no avail was zooming it to 6400x with Bearded Frog Pro, then searching for similar icons using Gazopa.

Reply

The Video Course teaches you everything about modern cars.

Running-on is when the engine continues to turn after you've switched offthe ignition because the fuel/air mixture is being ignited by a hot-spot in thecombustion chamber. Furthermore, because the mixture is often firing at thewrong point in the cycle, the engine does not run smoothly but jerks and rocksbadly on its mountings (and sometimes backfires). The problem can be so badthat the engine runs on for a minute or more if left alone.

Running-on is not good for your engine and it can cause serious damage ifyou allow it to go on for too long. A stop-gap measure (if your car is manual)is to put the car into gear and stall the engine; but this doesn't solve theproblem in the long term.

There are a number of reasons for the engine developing a hot-spot thatleads to running-on, some of which are easy to check and cure, while others aremore difficult.

The simplest causes are that the wrong grade of petrol is being used(usually of too low octane), the spark plugs are faulty or of the wrong grade,the carburettor is badly out of tune, or the ignition timing is faulty. Youshould check all these before going on to consider more serious causes such asexcessive carbon build-up.

First take out all the spark plugs and examine them carefully. Look at theelectrodes and the nose of the insulator for any signs of overheating. Theplugs should have a light brown coating all over - if they appear white orglazed, they have been overheating.

If the existing plugs are old, it's worth replacing them with a new set tosee if that cures the problem. Make sure that they are the correct type foryour car.

If the problem initially goes away and then quickly recurs, the standardgrade of plugs may be unsuitable for your particular engine. Check with yourdealer or handbook to see whether the car manufacturer specifies differenttypes of spark plug for different driving conditions, for example, a coolerrunning plug may be required for mainly fast driving, while for driving aroundtown a hotter one may be specified. Remember that if you fit cooler plugsbecause most of your driving is on motorways, they will foul up more quicklyaround town.

Take out the spark plugs and check them for signs of overheating or weak mixture.

Use a timing light to check that the ignition timing is accurately set.

Use a hose to check that there are no leaks into the inlet manifold, and adjust the fuel/air mixture to the correct setting.

If the spark plugs aren't at fault, you should next check the ignitiontiming. Usually, you will have had other warning of overadvanced timing, suchas pinking under hard acceleration.

It is best to check the timing stroboscopically with the engine running -this is far more accurate than doing it statically.

If running-on still persists, your next avenue of investigation is the fuelsystem. The problem may be caused by a weak fuel/air mixture because of a badlyadjusted carburettor or air leaking into the inlet manifold. A weak fuel/airmixture can make the engine run much hotter than it should.

First make sure the air filter is clean and correctly fitted. Follow all theemission system pipes that connect to the filter or carburettor to check thatnone is disconnected or split.

If all else seems well so far, start the engine and listen for a hissing orsucking sound from any of the joints between the carburettor and inletmanifold, or the inlet manifold and engine. Don't forget to check where anypipes or hoses join the manifold. Try not to confuse the sound with the normalintake roar through the carburettor.

If you think you may have found a leak, use a piece of tube as a stethoscopeto listen along the joint to make sure. As a further check, paint a little oilon to the joint with an old paint brush - if there is a leak you will see theoil disappearing into the hole. Replace any suspect gaskets.

If the manifold is leak-free, turn your attention to the carburettor. Tunethe carburettor (see the appropriate Mechanics sheet for your variety ofcarburettor) until the fuel/air mixture is correct. Also check that the idlingspeed is not set too high because this can cause running on. If you havetrouble getting the carburettor to tune, there may be wear in the carburettoritself. If it is beyond saving, you need a new or reconditioned carburettor.You may be able to save money by getting one from a scrapyard.

Compare your spark plugs to the ones shown here to see whether they are the cause of the problem. A badly glazed or eroded plug has been overheating and must be replaced. White deposits on the end of the plug indicate that the fuel/air mixture is too weak.

The anti-dieselling valve fitted by the car manufacturer is usually the type built into the side of the carburettor, rather than an air bleed valve connecting to the inlet manifold.

To check the valve, disconnect the wire and carefully unscrew the valve from the side of the carburettor using an open-ended spanner. You can usually get it out without removing the carburettor.

Use a jumper lead to connect the live terminal or wire on the valve to the batterypositive terminal, and touch the casing of the valve to the negative. If the valve works, there will be a click and the rod in the end will retract.

Anti-dieselling

The other point to check on the carburettor is the anti-dieselling valve (ifyour car has one). If this valve is the type built into the side of thecarburettor, which shuts off the fuel flow to the idle jet when the ignition isswitched off, then it can stick in the open position, allowing fuel to flowthrough and causing running-on.

To find the valve, consult your dealer or check in a workshop manual to seeif your car has one. If you can't find this information, look at the outside ofthe carburettor for a barrel-shaped object with a wire coming from it.

To check if the valve is working, disconnect the wire that connects thevalve to the electrical system, then use a spanner to unbolt the valve from thecarburettor. Connect the wire or terminal on the valve to the positive batteryterminal, and touch the body of the valve to the negative. If the solenoid inthe valve works, you will hear a click, and the small rod that pokes out of thevalve will move inwards.

What Is Running Start

If the valve doesn't do this, it needs replacing. But if it works, then theelectrical system may be faulty. Clip your test lamp to earth and probe thewire on the car that feeds the valve while a friend turns the ignition on andoff. The test lamp should come on and go off with the ignition.

Most air bleed valves mount on the car bodywork and connect to the inlet manifold by a short length of flexible hose. The hose can be plumbed into any existing hose to the manifold (such as the emission control system) or to a spare stub on the manifold. If there is only a single stub on the manifold with a hose already on it, you may be able to get a Y-adapter piece and connect the existing hose to one stub and the new one to the other.

Offer up the bleed valve to the inner wing and mark the hole positions. Use a hammer and centre punch to dent the hole position and prevent the drill slipping. Drill out the holes, taking care not to damage anything on the other side of the panel.

Attach the valve to the car with self-tapping screws. Push the flexible hose over the stub on the valve, and secure it with a clip. Run it down to your chosen take-off point on a hose or the manifold. If you are connecting into a hose, cut the hose, fit a T-piece and fit all the hose ends to it. Secure them all with clips.

If you are attaching to an adapter, remove the existing adapter or blanking plug and screw in the new adapter in place. Attach the hose to the stub and secure it with a clip.

What Is Running Good For

Crimp a suitable connector to a length of wire and push it on to the bleed valve. Run the wire from the valve to an ignition-controlled live feed. Connect it in. Ask a friend to turn on the ignition, and listen to the valve —you should hear a distinct click as the ignition is turned on. Start the engine and check that it runs well and that the running-on is now cured.

If you still haven't traced the cause of the problem, then it's most likelyto lie within the combustion chamber itself. Unfortunately there's not much youcan do to check where the problem lies without going to the trouble of takingoff the cylinder head first.

What Is Running Cadence

If your car has covered a high mileage or done a lot of short journeys, thenthe engine is most likely to need a decoke. The best way to do this is toremove the cylinder head and clean out the combustion chambers.

What Is Running

But before you go to the bother of decoking, consult your dealer or anengine tuning specialist to find out whether your particular car is susceptibleto running-on. If so, you may find that later models were modified with an airbleed valve to help overcome the problem, and you can fit the parts from one ofthese models to your car.