How to make Systray icon by default more visible in Win7/8

Question

How to make Systray icon more visible in Win7/8? (non hidden)

It seems that some icons such as "SPEAKER" are not hidden by default, how this can be done?

Answer 1

You don't get to choose whether or not your notification icon is hidden. That's up to the user. This is by design. On the other hand MS do get to force some of their notification icons to be visible initially.

Raymond Chen discusses this here: There is no interface for preventing your notification icon from being hidden

First of all, I'd like to congratulate you on writing the most awesome program in the history of the universe.

Unfortunately, Windows 7 was not prepared for your awesomeness, because there is no way to prevent your notification icon from being hidden. That's because if there were, then every other program (the ones that aren't as awesome as you) would use it, thereby causing your awesome icon to be lost among all the non-awesome ones.

Answer 2

In Windows 7 and later, you cannot force the icon to appear on the main Taskbar. This is clearly stated in the documentation :

When an icon is added to the notification area on Windows 7, it is added to the overflow section of the notification area by default. This area contains notification area icons that are active, but not visible in the notification area. Only the user can promote an icon from the overflow to the notification area, although in certain circumstances the system can temporarily promote an icon into the notification area as a short preview (under one minute).

Note The user should have the final say on which icons they want to see in their notification area. Before installing a non-transient icon in the notification area, the user should be asked for permission. They should also be given the option (normally though its shortcut menu) to remove the icon from the notification area.