--- title: "NotifyIcon Component Overview" ms.date: "03/30/2017" f1_keywords: - "NotifyIcon" helpviewer_keywords: - "NotifyIcon component [Windows Forms], about NotifyIcon component" - "system tray icons [Windows Forms], about system tray icons" - "system tray icons [Windows Forms], using in Windows Forms" ms.assetid: 5b9189fa-d4ae-41a6-9b97-eb1f44bb1a69 --- # NotifyIcon Component Overview (Windows Forms) The Windows Forms component is typically used to display icons for processes that run in the background and do not show a user interface much of the time. An example would be a virus protection program that can be accessed by clicking an icon in the status notification area of the taskbar. ## Key Properties of NotifyIcons Each component displays a single icon in the status area. If you have three background processes and wish to display an icon for each, you must add three components to the form. The key properties of the component are and . The property sets the icon that appears in the status area. In order for the icon to appear, the property must be set to `true`. ## NotifyIcons Options You can associate balloon tips, shortcut menus, and ToolTips with a to assist the user. You can display balloon tips for a by calling the method specifying the time span you wish the balloon tip to display. You can also specify the text, icon and title of the balloon tip with the , and , respectively. components can also have associated ToolTips and shortcut menus. For more information, see [ToolTip Component Overview](tooltip-component-overview-windows-forms.md) and [ContextMenu Component Overview](contextmenu-component-overview-windows-forms.md). ## See also - - [NotifyIcon Component](notifyicon-component-windows-forms.md)