Customize the Sitecore System Tray

The Sitecore Desktop is just like Windows, it’s customizable. Not a lot have utilized it because there’s not much about on how to do so except for typical user-specifics such as wallpaper, desktop shortcuts, etc. Here is one thing you can do to the system tray.

WARNING: Make sure to be cautious when making these changes as these updates the Core database.

1. Click on the Database Selector and select Core.
2. Under the Core database, open the Content Editor.
3. Go to sitecore/content/Applications/Desktop/Tray. You’ll see the Database item there which defines the Database Selector you see to the left of the time in the system tray.
4. Let’s add a new Toolbutton and name it OpenWebsite.
5. In the OpenWebsite item, the key fields under Data are:

• Click: defines the system command that is called when the item is clicked on the tray (for our example use “system:openwebsite”)
• Icon: the icon used on the tray (for our example use “Network/16x16/earth.png”

Play with the other fields there and see how it changes the tray.

*EDIT October 28, 2010. We have moved our blog to http://blog.roundedcube.com and you can now comment on this specific post at http://www.roundedcube.com/WhatsNew/Blog/customize-the-sitecore-system-tray