The History & Almost Useless Workaround for Sticky Notes Minimizing to Notifications Tray Instead of the Taskbar
Have you ever found yourself using Sticky Notes, the native app Windows and thought, there’s way too many tabs on my taskbar, can I make Sticky Notes work from the tray instead? A quick search on the internet tells you, no, you can’t and suggests that you download some other APP. But, you don’t want to use third party apps, is there some sort of workaround you wonder?
Well, yes, there is! Well, kind of. But, it’s not great and you’ll probably not get the feature you were hoping to when you originally wished it could be minimized to the system tray. Don’t care and want to take your chances anyway? Well then, here you go! It’s the internet’s only workaround that doesn’t require any scripts or complicated reprogramming to accomplish near minimizing-to-system-tray benefits! (Or at least half of them… and with some caveats)
~TLDR~ / Foreword
Honestly, not letting go of one’s aversion to avoiding the installation of an additional 3rd party app in the hopes of continuing the use of Sticky Notes is more detrimental to one’s sanity than simply accepting use of an alternative 3rd party app to achieve the implied-from-the-title result. You can easily find another app that that works exactly the same way as Sticky Notes but also has minimizing to the system tray as a feature, e.g. Stickies or Simple Sticky Notes, to name a couple. And, there’s A LOT and plenty more to choose from out there with some added features too! But, if you’re attached for whatever reason or you wish to bask in the benefits of your Microsoft account’s sync function (even though 3rd party apps can just as easily sync with other computers if used with Google Drive or Dropbox), then maybe, just maybe, you’ll end up using this workaround for what its worth.
Otherwise, seriously, just go with the TLDR tip above, my workaround explained below is just to show how complicatedly and unnecessarily annoying it is to achieve what the people have wanted and asked for, for more than the past 12+ years but still have not been granted such wishes or even be blessed with a more capable workaround. In other words, below is a work of satire and probably not the answer you wanted to hear.
But hey, if you want to give it a shot and skip the history lesson which adds depth to the satire at hand then you can get right to the point by scrolling down to “Okay, So… How Do You Do it?”
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
For years, Windows users have asked about an ability to minimize Sticky Notes to the Notification Tray instead of the Taskbar due to the sheer amount of tabs it can create and space it can take up on one’s taskbar. This is especially true if the number of sticky notes one has starts to accumulate and one doesn’t have the Combine when full or Always combine option set in Taskbar Settings.
The requests have been witnessed as far back as 2009 in the earlier versions of windows such as Windows Vista, Windows 7 and not just Windows 8 or 10 as shown here, here, here, or here respectively. But, aside from 710,000 Google search results when searching “how to move sticky notes from taskbar to tray” it seems Microsoft simply doesn’t feel enough people want it or do they feel at all compelled over the past 3 generations of Windows OS to enable such a feature or create an app to provide that feature for us.
For better or for worse, Microsoft is getting rid of the notification area as a place for apps to run. If the app really is supposed to be a background app, it can be provided as a service instead. ~CmdrKeene, Shawn “Cmdr” Keene | Microsoft MVP — Windows Insider [Response post from November 8, 2010]
Back in Windows 7, Microsoft first decided to change Sticky Notes from a gadget to an app primarily to add tablet support, search index support, and offer the ability for users to continue using Sticky Notes in case their administrator disabled gadgets for security issues. Some argue that by enabling the ability to be added to the taskbar, one can now use hotkeys to immediately launch it (by a combination of the Windows key and the number place in succession it appears on your taskbar. But, due to the design of Windows and how app windows work, each note has to appear as a separate window from the main app just as Google tabs appear as their own window in the taskbar when you pull them from their shared tab.
While whatever intelligible reason one could possibly think of may be arguably reasonable to some people (e.g. “stickies are reminders and shouldn’t be left long enough to accumulate, otherwise make a document instead” — uh huh, right, sure), it will always be preposterous to others out there as to why they couldn’t just add it in as an option*, either act as a system tray icon and not count every note as a window or become a system tray icon that automatically consolidates all the open windows, but nonetheless here we are.
However, if you’re still on Windows 7, you may want to check this link. It’s for anyone opening up to the idea of a 3rd party app but still want to use Sticky Notes as it offers the ability of hiding Sticky Notes from the taskbar. Too bad there’s not a Windows 10 version.
It’s worth noting that aside from downloading a third party app/program (which is probably the best solution to this recherché quandary, TBH), what’s offered below is the closest to a workaround one will find for Windows 10. One that offers similar benefits, though not all and with some serious caveats, which will enable Sticky Notes somewhat to act as if it were a tray icon rather than being on your taskbar; but it wont actually be a tray icon and will still be in your taskbar.
Huh, What do you mean?
For me personally, and I assume for many of us, the main reason we want it to appear as a system tray icon instead of a taskbar tab is because of the sheer number of tabs that will appear on our task bar that takes up all that unnecessary space when we find ourselves with even more than a couple of sticky notes on our desktop.
Some might suggest to visit the ‘ole Taskbar Settings and change the option of “Combine taskbar buttons” to “Always, hide labels” as a solution to the amount of space it takes up but for the most stubborn of us, that’s not all what we want or hoped for! Because maybe, we want to see the labels for our browser windows, and/or other programs but we just want sticky notes to stop taking up so much taskbar room or being on there at all!
Am I right?? or am I right??
[Insert your frustration/anger management practices here to calm yourself]
Some say that they really encourage setting your taskbar to hide the labels because they don’t fit anyway. Citing an example of how opening a few Word or Excel documents results in all the icons simply saying “Microsoft Off…” which prevents being able to identify the name of the program or document anyway and in a way forces us subconsciously to rely on the icon. So why not just rely on the icons from the start? The simple reply, “If I make my task bar bigger, then my windows won’t become too small to read and I won’t have to rely on the icon.”
Or better said by aetius476 in response to that encouragement, “I leave the taskbar uncombined because that allows me to switch between windows in the same program with one click instead of two, the second of which I can’t process until I’ve made the first click.”
To be fair, that last argument was from back in 2011 before hovering your mouse over a tab would show previews of each window which still doesn’t make things faster for aetius476 unfortunately. Additionally, depending on your performance settings, that hover feature might be disabled and you’d still need to rely on what’s visible in the taskbar to identify windows.
Alright, So What Benefits can this “workaround” offer?
Well, it’s going to cost you certain features and you might have to sacrifice a Taskbar option or two if you prefer things another way, but let’s just lay out what you’d normally expect from a feature such as a ‘ minimize to system tray instead of taskbar’ setting would hope to offer:
To be an open app that is represented as being open or active on the taskbar, is instead shown as open and active by a presence in the notification tray or system tray, the area by the clock, with a small icon instead; whereby when you click on it, either left-click or right-click, the app will either do one of the following actions or offer the action in a small pop up menu:
- To show/hide all your notes (with the implication that it re-appears as how you’ve left them on your desktop)
- To add a new note
- To close the program/app completely
- When active or showing notes, all the notes won’t appear as separate windows and doesn’t take up space on the taskbar as if they were all separate windows
Whereas this workaround can offer all the same benefits (with some caveats) there is one benefit it won’t be able to offer and that is:
- When active or showing notes, all the notes won’t appear as separate windows and doesn’t take up space on the taskbar as if they were all separate windows
Obviously, just using “hiding all notes” would remove them (for the most part) in the space they take up on your taskbar so… who cares, no biggie right? It’s not like that’s the most useful feature of them all or anything. I mean, how often would you want your notes to remain visible on your desktop while also not taking up space on the taskbar? Pffffft! (In case you didn’t read into the sarcasm, that’s obviously the main point, at least for me, of wanting it as a system tray rather than a taskbar tab) But, I digress.
Okay, So… How do you do it?
First I’ll explain what you need to set up and then I’ll be able to show you how to use that setup to achieve the aforementioned benefits.
The Setup
- With Sticky Notes open and showing, right click on the tab in the taskbar and click “Pin to Taskbar”
- Although I hate to be that same person to suggest this, you’ll have to change your taskbar settings for how tabs appear. Right click on an empty space in your taskbar and select Taskbar Settings. Then scroll down to the option labelled “Combine taskbar buttons” and select either “When taskbar is full” or “Always, hide labels” depending on your personal preference. If you absolutely prefer to keep it on “Never”, the principles of the workaround can still be applied but you will lose major functionality.
- Then, assuming you chose to combine taskbar buttons when the taskbar is full, when Sticky Notes is closed, or when the tabs are grouped/combined, Move the pinned icon or the group of tabs farthest to the left among all your other pinned apps/programs, or to the left of a pinned app/program you either normally have lots of windows open for (like windows explorer or your internet browser, if they’re pinned); or to the left of a program that currently has the most windows open. This is just to ensure that the Sticky Notes windows will be grouped together.
But, if you wanted it closer to the tray area for that aesthetic look and false sense of system tray icon feel, such as placement more to the farthest right, to act as your last pinned taskbar item, you will need to set the Combine taskbar buttons setting to “Always, hide labels” or just hope for the best.
*For above, directions of far left and far right are in conjunction with those who have the taskbar at the bottom or top of their screen, if you have it on the sides of your screen then far left is equivalent to farthest top and farthest right is equivalent to farthest down (AKA left or up is closest to start and right or down is closest to the tray, notification area, or clock)
So far so simple, right? 😅
How to achieve “system tray icon benefits”
- First off, if you want a system tray size icon, or at least closes to it, you’ll have to go back into Taskbar settings and toggle on the “Use small taskbar buttons” option. Then, badda-bing badda-boom, you got yourself an icon look-a-like.
- To hide all notes, right click on the Sticky Notes grouped tab and click “Close All Windows” (Yes, hit “close all…”, if you choose hide, they will only be minimized) Unfortunately, the caveat here is that the “Close All Windows” option only appears when the taskbar windows are combined or grouped together as a result of either the “Always combine” option or when your taskbar is full with the “Combined when full” option is selected in your Taskbar Settings. [Ughhh! That’s what we were trying to avoid, I know! Freekin’ aye!]
- To show all notes that you had “hid by closing all windows”, right click on the pinned taskbar icon and click “Show All Notes.” And, don’t worry, only notes that were showing before will appear and not ones you’ve hidden. (By “hidden,” I mean closed. Which is not to be confused with deleting. The difference of deleting is that they will not appear on your “Notes list” whereas closing them actually just hides the note itself but they are still available and can be brought back using your Notes List”)
- To add a new note (while all notes are “hidden”), just right click on the pinned taskbar icon and select add new note. Fair warning though, and yet another caveat, is that if your notes are all “hidden” (as in you used close all windows recently), adding a new note will make all your notes re-appear as if you wanted to show all notes again. This doesn’t apply if the app is already open, obviously.
- To close the program/app completely would require all the tabs be grouped (or “combined” as your taskbar settings would call it) and simply right clicking on the group and select Close All Windows to close the app. (Yes, just like what you did to hide all the notes)
As a point of clarification on closing the program completely, you already know that when you close a note, it just closes the window of that note as previously mentioned. So then you’ll figure that the contents of a note and the note itself is saved within Sticky Notes and can always be recalled using your Notes List. Therefore by now you’ll understand that the app automatically closes when no sticky notes are open, including the notes list, obviously, if it had been open.
And…
There you have it! The most complicated, caveat-filled workaround explanation you can ever hope for, or will ever have for that matter, which helps you avoid downloading a third party app and allows you to continue using Sticky Notes for all your desktop sticky note taking tasks but while nearly acting like it was a system tray icon; yet making life more complicated than it ever was before. Yippee!
It should go without saying, it’s just a lot easier to download a third party app to fulfill any sort of desire for a minimize to tray feature especially since, considering it’s been 12 years later and counting, Microsoft still hasn’t added the feature and won’t seem to add the feature, I highly doubt it will ever come.
*And yet Microsoft wonders why some people prefer third party apps over theirs…/sighs
P.S. I know this wasn’t a hilariously entertaining satire to say nonetheless, but quite honestly, I wrote it as a response in a Reddit thread for someone asking this question for the millionth time and though I edited it to add sarcasm (‘cause that would’ve been rude had I included it in my intended as helpful response), I really just didn’t want all that writing effort to go to waste. Plus, when I started that reply, it was because I too was looking for a way to get Sticky Notes to minimize to system tray and thought I’d help us both by figuring something out but by the end of it, I ended up convincing myself to simply go with and download a third party app. Now, isn’t THAT ironic?
Bonus for making it down this far!
Download Dropbox from this link to add an extra 500 MB of bonus space after installing their app. Why download the app? Because, if you change the settings in whatever 3rd party sticky notes app you decide to use and change where it saves your note information to and have it save into your Dropbox folder instead , then with every computer that also has your replacement app and Dropbox will be able to sync together just as you would with your Microsoft account, except unlike Microsoft sync and Sticky Notes, it has the added bonus of also saving where the sticky notes will appear up on your desktop if you have the same resolution set on each PC. Meaning the ones you show and hide will be the same!
Yea, Microsoft sync only syncs the notes on your list, then you have to select which ones appear on your other desktops. /sigh