1810583 - Windows tray implementation could be a lot better

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Thunderbird :: OS Integration, enhancement)

Description

[Destroy666]

Steps to reproduce:

I checked what's currently possible when it comes to controlling the application through tray.

Actual results:

Basic functionalities are missing, even with extensions. By default, you can only minimize to tray and the button can't really be interacted with. With Minimze to Close extension you can also close the application to tray.

Expected results:

I would expect for an application of this type to have way better tray capabilities.

First of all, the standard for closing/minimizing an app is more or less this:

• allow optionally minimizing to tray
• allow optionally closing to tray
  Both options are supposed to be independent, e.g. it should be possible to minimize the window to task bar and close it to tray. That gives the user a lot more control. Currently it's not doable with the mentioned extension.

Secondly, the button could use a right click menu that makes it possible to quickly:

• quit the application - this is how applications that can close to tray basically allow the user to shut the application down completely in a matter of 2 button clicks. Out of curiosity, I checked all the apps in my system (~35 of them) and all of them had this option on right click, except Thunderbird, which just doesn't implement right click.
• dismiss the notification red dot and hover numbers for new messages (acknowledge their exisence without launching the main application window)
• possibly also quickly execute some actions, e.g. open the calendar or compose a new message with any account from a dropdown. But that's less important than the 2 functionalities above and perhaps lower priority for later.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

It may seem nice, but I'm not sure the user demand and added flexibility warants the additional complexity of addiitonal options. And, importantly, does it greatly improve user workflow/productivity?

Comment 2

[Destroy666]

It not only improves that, it improves that greatly. Tray is one of the most utilized areas by users that aren't completely casual. If e.g. Ditto, Discord, ShareX or in-built Windows functionalities such as sound or Wi-Fi didn't have a functional tray with appropriate menus, people would waste tons of hours of their life for easy tasks that are supposed to be quickly accessible. Checking email is usually even more common than checking Discord, Slack or whatever. We are in 2023 and tray has already been in common use for at least 15-20 years.

Comment 3

[Frasier Crane]

Can you please finally, finally, finally, FINALLY, add "Close to system tray"??? It's extremely important on slower virtual machines where starting TB takes literally forever, so it must be kept in memory to be usable... Just using the minimize button (together with Minimize to tray") instead of close is not an option, because that's a different thing and often I just want to minimize the window and keep it on the taskbar.

So PLEASE add this extremely important feature! It needs to be independent of "Minimize to tray", because that's a different thing...

The extension "KeepRunning" somewhat works, but it leads to undesired side effects (like the main window hiding when replying to a mail, the "Write" window minimizing, etc.), so it's not really an option.

Thanks!

Comment 4

[Destroy666]

This is definitely something that should not be done through extensions as it requires proper integrations with various systems plus is vulnerable to changes in Thunderbird, yet people are coding various clunky workarounds because this basic functionality is missing in 2024 :(