need your help for launching an progra

[allstarleb]

Hi Everyone,

I am new and this is my first post.

I use macro express to launch programs from a menu, I can get the programs to load fine except when they are minimized in the task bar. Here is a screenshot to see the location I am referring to, it's the bottom right hand location of the windows screen near the clock. When a program is there and i run the load program commend it doesn't load it. I have tried activating the window, hidden windows, loading it with many fancy ways but it doesn't work. If the program is loaded and minimized in the system tray it won't pop up and display in front of me. It works fine if the program is not loaded or in the system tray, but if it's minimized there it will not load. I have been using a work-around where i close and open it... but that's inefficient and not good for programs that need to be on all the time.

Your help will be much appreciated.

 

Here's a screenshot of the location i want to opn/launch;

http://i.imgur.com/aNiLXed.png

Thank you,

Ali

 

 

[Cory]

That is not the taskbar. That is the system tray. As a general rule those icons are representing programs or services that are running in the background. EG Carbonite on my machine. As a general rule those icons allow you to have a quick menu to get to the application but the application that gives you the GUI isn't actually running. EG Carbonite on my machine the Carbonite services are running in the background and the Information Center isn't running. If I click on the menu item that pops up on the tray icon then I can open the Information Center.

 

I think you're confused as to what these icons represent. And it depends on the application. I'm sorry I'm not more help but hopefully that will help clarify why things don't work like you expect.

[Samrae]

To clarify, that is the Notification Area of the Taskbar. Microsoft changed the name of this area. It was formerly known as the System Tray.

 

To access programs in the Notification Area / System Tray you can use the "Move Mouse to Tray Icon" command. After the mouse is moved you can right-click or left-click the mouse to activate the menu associated with that icon. Note, however, that the "Move Mouse to Tray Icon" command does not work with icons that are hidden by Windows. To get around this Windows allows you to select which icons are hidden (although I have had mixed results with this).

[allstarleb]

To clarify, that is the Notification Area of the Taskbar. Microsoft changed the name of this area. It was formerly known as the System Tray.

 

To access programs in the Notification Area / System Tray you can use the "Move Mouse to Tray Icon" command. After the mouse is moved you can right-click or left-click the mouse to activate the menu associated with that icon. Note, however, that the "Move Mouse to Tray Icon" command does not work with icons that are hidden by Windows. To get around this Windows allows you to select which icons are hidden (although I have had mixed results with this).

Thank you so much, this fixed my problem! I didn't think that "mouse move" would be where I could find the commend to actually launch a program there.

 

[acantor]

There is rarely a reason for a macro to activate an icon in the Notification Area / System Tray. Is there an executable that will accomplish the same thing? If yes, then you can do this with Macro Express:

 

Program Launch: "ABC.EXE" (Normal)

 

...in which you specify the program and its path as...

 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Oracle\JavaFX 2.1 Runtime\bin\plugin2\ABC.EXE

 

This more programmatic approach gets around knowing what is on the System Tray and where it appears in the System Tray. There is also no need to position the mouse, because the command line accesses a file directly.

[Cory]

I agree with Alan and that's in effect what I was trying to say.

[allstarleb]

There is rarely a reason for a macro to activate an icon in the Notification Area / System Tray. Is there an executable that will accomplish the same thing? If yes, then you can do this with Macro Express:

 

Program Launch: "ABC.EXE" (Normal)

 

...in which you specify the program and its path as...

 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Oracle\JavaFX 2.1 Runtime\bin\plugin2\ABC.EXE

 

This more programmatic approach gets around knowing what is on the System Tray and where it appears in the System Tray. There is also no need to position the mouse, because the command line accesses a file directly.

I tried this but it doesn't load, for example I use the Logitech G600 mouse and the G910 keyboard, I created a shortcut that launches the software. When I do the direct .exe approach nothign happens, at best I get it to freeze.

It is even more annoying with programs that open up more then one instances if I execute the direct file, so for example outlook will just open up another outlook if i run it directly. Maybe there is something I can input in the parameters to work around this?

[Cory]

I don't know if it's still the case but MS apps by default used a DDE parameter. I used to undo this so I could run multiple instances of Excel or Outlook. With the DDE parameter I think you include a message. The application will start and see if there's already an instance running. If it finds and instance running it will close itself and focus that. Or in the case of the DDE in the file association open the file you double clicked in File Explorer.