How to start the application directly in system tray? (.NET C#)

Question

I mean when the user starts my application(exe). I want it to start directly in system tray, without showing the window. Like antivirus softwares & download managers, wh

Answer 1

The way I usually setup something like this is to modify the Program.cs to look something like the following:

    [STAThread]
    static void Main()
    {
        Application.EnableVisualStyles();
        Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);

        using (NotifyIcon icon = new NotifyIcon())
        {
            icon.Icon = System.Drawing.Icon.ExtractAssociatedIcon(Application.ExecutablePath);
            icon.ContextMenu = new ContextMenu(new MenuItem[] {
                new MenuItem("Show form", (s, e) => {new Form1().Show();}),
                new MenuItem("Exit", (s, e) => { Application.Exit(); }),
            });
            icon.Visible = true;

            Application.Run();
            icon.Visible = false;
        }
    }

Using this, you don't need to worry about hiding instead of closing forms and all the rest of the hacks that can lead to... You can make a singleton form too instead of instantiating a new Form every time you click the show form option. This is something to build off of, not the end solution.