Windows 7 How can I setup the connectivity indicator on task bar?

shiphen

Extraordinary Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2010
Messages
58
Hi

In WindowXP there used to be an icon on the bottom right of the task bar that let you know (by lighting up) if you were downloading and/or uploading data from the interenet. How can I set this up in Windows 7?


Ship
 


Not so fast - I got as far as "turn system icons on or off", but there *IS* no network option! :(

Ship
 


Right click the small upward right arrow, by the notification area. Select properties. There you will probably find that the network icon is not enabled.
 


I believe I have done everything you said (although your exact wording of options confuses me slightly)
Howev we may be at cross purposes. I can see AN icon which does a mouseover to say
"Network" and "Internet access" - however it fails to change colour to indicate upload and download
traffic (like used to happen in WindowsXP).

Ship
 


Understood. The facility is not available in Windows 7.
However, there is a third party offer which works and gives the same function. This is the picture, and I have attached the file.


Link Removed due to 404 Error

Later. Well. The above suggestion works, but it seems to be random. I could not get it to stay on the taskbar 100%. I copied it over to the "Startup" item in the start menu and, so far, all is well on reboots.
 


Last edited:
Yes - thanks - I have tried Network-Activity-Indicator and it works fine. HOWEVER as soon as I reboot it disappears.
I have tried installing it twice now. Any suggestions?

Ship
 


See my "later" bit
 


Yes - thanks - I have tried Network-Activity-Indicator and it works fine. HOWEVER as soon as I reboot it disappears.
I have tried installing it twice now. Any suggestions?

Ship

Put the .exe (or its shortcut) to your Startup folder.
 


Not to nitpick here but we are talking about the "system tray" here, a completely different animal from the task bar.
XP had an annnoying bug where an item in the system tray would fail to show at startup.
A peek in Process Explorer would show that the item was running but no show in the system tray.

Apparently that behavior is carried over to Win 7.

Sometimes even placing a shortcut to the offending item in the startup menu would not 100% fix the issue.

Back in my XP days an individual at another forum pointed me to a neat program that creates a script that you can use to force these items to display properly.
WinX32 by Don Beusee is the program and I've been using it ever since.

link below
Link Removed due to 404 Error

As you can see from his site you can run several programs from one shortcut and have them start at different times.
I've just added the shortcut command for Network-Activity-Indicator to my all purpose WinX32 startup shortcut.

Using Startup Delayer

link below
r2 Studios - Software

I set my all purpose shortcut to execute about 45 seconds into boot, after my desktop is fully functional.
One by one these startup items execute. This cuts my boot to a functional desktp time to ~42 seconds.

The items in the shortcut are things I deem absolutely needed to start with windows.

As an example, below is the contents of my all purpose WinX32 script.

/sleep 0
"C:\ProcessExplorer\procexp.exe"/hide /t

/sleep 1
"C:\network-activity-indicator\NetworkIndicator.exe"

/sleep 2
"C:\Program Files\DreamBreed DreamBirthday\DreamBirthday.exe"/hide /t

/sleep 4
"C:\Program Files\Notebook Hardware Control\nhc.exe"/hide /t

/sleep 6
"C:\Windows\System32\net.exe"/hide ""START"" ""W32TIME""

/sleep 8
"C:\Windows\System32\w32tm.exe"/hide ""/resync"" ""/nowait""

/sleep 10
"C:\Program Files\Elaborate Bytes\VirtualCloneDrive\VCDDaemon.exe"/hide

/sleep 11
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\reader_sl.exe"/hide

One of the commands fixes an issue I've had with the Windows Time service failing to start with Windows.
The other time related command forces Windows Time to update my system time at every boot.

The sleep parameter is the delay in seconds.

The Startup Delay program executes the script about 45 seconds after I start windows from my multiboot menu and one by one the commands execute.

This happens after my desktop is up and full functional.
I can be using my desktop while the commands quietly execute.
 


Last edited:
There you go. My mistake. I thought the OP was referring to the Notification area. If he follows the instructions, that is where the icon he wants will appear.
Documentation ( Link Removed due to 404 Error)
When referring to the notification area:
* Refer to the notification area as the notification area, not the system tray.
 


Hi RAK, The system tray and notification area are the same thing.
XP referred to the same area as the System Tray but the terms are interchangable.
The taskbar is everything to the left of the system tray/notification area.

System tray and notification area are components of the task bar as explained in you doc link.

There is a similar feature with same function on most Linux desktops.
It is part of a toolbar called the panel and can be completely removed if desired.
Linux calls it the system tray but you also get notifications there.
The big difference here is if you don't want the system tray for some reason all you have to do is right click the handle for it and choose "remove from panel"
I can't see any reason for doing that though.
This device in both Windows and Linux is a source of valuable info as well as showing programs that are running in the background so to speak.

Screenshot Below:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c338/fjgold/Untitled-37.jpg

You are absolutely right RAK, using the correct terminology will avoid confusion.
 


Last edited:
LOL. Thankyou for explaining my explanation, and for the picture. I have no interest in Linux however.
 


Your welcome RAK, I only mentioned Linux to illustrate the similar desktop features.
 


Back
Top