[Fluent UX] Quick access flyout in system tray

[niels9001]

📝 Provide a description of the new feature

Problem
The system tray provides a lot of quick access tools such as the notification center, network and sound settings. This is also where PowerToys lives, but it only provides two actions: opening settings and closing the application.

Additionally, the amount of PowerToys modules keep growing and most features are only accessible with keyboard shortcuts. To make these features more accessible, we also need to consider keyboard and mouse users. Providing additional functionality to quickly switch modes to keep in your workflow would be great, and can really showcase the various great tools.

Solution & features
A flyout that opens whenever the user clicks on the systray app icon. It provides an interactive overlay that gives users quick access to the following features:

Feature	Priority
Ability to open settings	Should
Quick launch PT modules (e.g. Run / Color Picker / Shortcut Guide )	Should
Features that are disabled should not show up	Should
Ability to set quick settings for e.g. Awake (mode) or Fancy Zones (layout switching)	Could
The order (and options) should be customizable	Could
Video Conference Mute buttons	Could
Warning icon to indicate that PT is not running elevated	Could
Banner/message whenever a new update is available	Could

Mock-up
Here's a WinUI UWP mock-up of how this flyout could work:

Light mode:

Dark mode:

Source code can be found here: https://github.com/niels9001/SystrayUX/

Looking forward to more feedback to improve this concept!

---

If you'd like to see this feature implemented, add a 👍 reaction to this post.

[niels9001]

@Jay-o-Way

Checking for updates actually triggered a thought: we could probably put an icon / banner in the top bar when:

• New update is available
• Button to show "What's new" (related to Improve first time run experience #1285 (comment))
• Icon to indicate that you are (not) running elevated.

[Jay-o-Way]

To make these features more accessible, we also need to consider keyboard and mouse users.

And touch screen, of course.

Should we hide features that are disabled by the user?

Difficult choice, but I think I would say no, because I like to be able to reach as much as I can.

New update is available

Possible, but right now that is already done via notifications, which also feels fine to me.

[enricogior]

Looks like the community doesn't like it!

[crutkas]

Things we need to think about that impacts this + OOBE and who actually runs the UX and how we keep it in memory/instantly load.

OOBE could live in Settings easily but what about this dialog. Right now the systray UX is inside Runner.

[Poopooracoocoo]

just mentioning Instant Eyedropper

[crutkas]

@Poopooracoocoo ???

[Poopooracoocoo]

@Poopooracoocoo ???

I had mentioned it in #1244 and so I mentioned it again so that it's visible as not many people look at closed issues.

[martinchrzan]

Looks great!
What about toys that does not have an activation key such as image resizer, power rename, file explorer ads-ons? Can we promote them somehow? I am afraid that if we show only the ones as in your mock-up users might think that these ones are all toys that we have.
Or maybe it is OK and we should only have some OOB "slideshow" running when installed that will showcase all toys. In that case, this would be sufficient.

[niels9001]

not have an activation key such as image resizer, power rename, file explorer ads-ons? Can we promote them somehow? I am afraid that if we show only the ones as in your

Didn't think of that. I think the OOBE UX should provide an image / description of each module that explains what it does and how it works / where it's integrated.

This OOBE module we could make accessible in this flyout as well under quick launch (e.g. "Learn about other PT modules").

[crutkas]

i like the idea for OOBE to have everything. @dedavis6797 fyi.

[Jay-o-Way]

What about toys that does not have an activation key such as image resizer, power rename, file explorer ads-ons?

@martinchrzan Resizer and Power Rename need files to work on, that's why the current method to start them is via the file context menu in File Explorer, so that they will have the files immediately when opened. If you can start up Resizer and Rename directly, without files, then you would have to manually select/add them later. That's not impossible to create, but it would be a new and different functionality.

For the File Explorer add-ons; do they really need to be turned on and off often/quickly?

[martinchrzan]

@Jay-o-Way not really, it would be still possible. If this flyout menu wasn't taking focus from your file explorer, or we had something like I proposed in #6836 - then you can trigger actions on actually selected file/files in your currently focused file explorer window (I do that in my project https://github.com/martinchrzan/FileExplorerGallery)

[Jay-o-Way]

Okay, you are right, it's not impossible, but as you said, the Explorer window needs to keep focus to determine the selected files. But what if I have more than one Explorer window open? Also, this means you start in the Explorer window and then move away from it to perform an action on selected files. That does not feel sensible to me. It would be more direct to just open the context menu. Or maybe, add the possibility to open Rename and Resize with a hotkey?

[ghost]

I suggest that we should have a taskbar icon that would be consistent with these kinds of icons (White/Dark outline depending on your color theme and no fill):

[niels9001]

I suggest that we should have a taskbar icon that would be consistent with these kinds of icons (White/Dark outline depending on your color theme and no fill):

We're tracking this in: #3523

[martinchrzan]

I think we should have a different issue for that - tasks on a start menu item are "static", probably can be added into an installer?

Original feature request in this issue requires some process to create tray icon and run a "context menu" so it is more "dynamic"

[Shomnipotence]

[eidylon]

This looks great... one issue with it though, .... it doesn't appear in the correct corner if you have your taskbar located elsewhere (i have mine on the top of the screen).

[crutkas]

@eidylon can you file a bug against this? This is a Win10 only bug but 100% something we should factor in

[jaimecbernardo]

This has been addressed as part of the 0.67 release cycle. Thank you!

[Torinde]

Would be amazing if clicking on that tray icon (right click or left click + menu item in the flyout) or a second tray icon provides functionality like the Win10 Desktop toolbar >>

• Win11 taskbar with desktop toolbar '>>' browsable folders with cascading levels #16404