If you are using Windows Live Messenger in Windows 7, you might have noticed that it doesn't minimize to system tray when you click on minimize button in WLM titlebar. Instead it sits in Taskbar just like any other program.
In previous Windows versions, it used to sit in system tray upon clicking on minimize button. You can enable this feature in Windows 7 using Compatibility mode trick:
How to Get “Hide Window When Minimized” Option Back in Windows Live Mail in Windows 7
If you don't want to use compatibility mode trick, today we are going to share a free and very small utility which automatically patches Windows Live Messenger's EXE file to bring back the minimize to system tray feature in Windows 7.
"WLM Tray Patch" is a freeware which modifies WLM executable file and changes some hex code to enable the good old minimize to system tray feature back.
You just need to run the patcher, select the Windows Live Messenger's EXE file and click on Patch button. It also creates a backup file so that you can restore it if you are not satisfied with the tool. To restore the original file, run the patcher again and click on Restore button.
You can download it using following link:
Thanks to our friend "Nirmal" for sharing it...
This article was posted by VG in following section: Software, Troubleshooting, Windows 7, Windows Live.
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SonicBlue
MessengerDiscovery has the same option (show messenger in the system tray menu) but it's not free
Yvidhiatama
@VG:
I got an error message. It says "Unsupported WLM version!". Please help!
Thanks
Wizi
Enabling Windows Vista compatibility mode on the shortcut's properties panel also does the trick.
Vinay
Hi VG thanks for this cool trick but both method doesn't work for me. im using windows7 sp1 x64
odio
I prefer to run on Compatibility mode, but now I dont use MSN anymore, only Gmail Chat.
Youssef
i have beter safe idea for it
run windows live messenger in windows vista SP2 compatibility
and that's works for all program u wanna run in System Tray
Vinay
@Yvidhiatama - This patch is only for windows live messenger version 15.4.3538.513 so it won't work on any other version. So maybe you can try that compatibility mode trick if it works for you. Didn't work for me though....
carbonize
Anybody else wondering if all the people talking about using compatibility mode actually bothered to read the article or just went off the title?
Samy
^^ lol. Absolutely right dude.
odio
@carbonize I did, but some people apparently not.
I just commented that I PREFER to do this by Compatibility way.