Getting Started with WPF Notify Icon

18 Oct 20225 minutes to read

This section provides you an overview of working with NotifyIcon for WPF and provides a walkthrough to configure the NotifyIcon control in a real-time scenario.

Assembly deployment

Refer to the control dependencies section to get the list of assemblies or NuGet package that needs to be added as a reference to use the control in any application.

Further information on installing the NuGet package can be found in the following link:
How to install nuget packages.

You can also use the Syncfusion Reference Manager to refer to the NotifyIcon’s dependent assemblies.

Creating an application with NotifyIcon control

In this walkthrough, you will create a WPF application that contains the NotifyIcon control.

Creating a project

Create a new WPF project to show the NotifyIcon control in Visual Studio.

Adding the control manually in XAML

To add the control manually to the XAML page, follow the given steps:

  1. Add the following required assembly references to the project,

    • Syncfusion.Shared.WPF
    • Syncfusion.Tools.WPF
    • Syncfusion.Shared.WPF.Classic
    • Syncfusion.Tools.WPF.Classic

  2. Import Syncfusion.WPF schema http://schemas.syncfusion.com/wpf in the XAML page or clr-namespace:Syncfusion.Windows.Tools.Controls;assembly=Syncfusion.Tools.Wpf.Classic namespace.

  3. Declare the NotifyIcon control in XAML page.

    <Window
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
        xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
        xmlns:local="clr-namespace:NotifyIcon_GettingStarted"
        xmlns:syncfusion="http://schemas.syncfusion.com/wpf" x:Class="NotifyIcon_GettingStarted.MainWindow"
        xmlns:tools="clr-namespace:Syncfusion.Windows.Tools.Controls;assembly=Syncfusion.Tools.Wpf.Classic"
        mc:Ignorable="d"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="450" Width="800">
    <Grid>
        <syncfusion:NotifyIcon Height="80" Width="150" />
    </Grid>
</Window>

Adding control manually in C#

To add the control manually in C#, follow the given steps:

  1. Add the following required assembly references to the project,

    • Syncfusion.Shared.WPF
    • Syncfusion.Tools.WPF
    • Syncfusion.Shared.WPF.Classic
    • Syncfusion.Tools.WPF.Classic

  2. Import the NotifyIcon namespace Syncfusion.Windows.Tools.Controls.

  3. Create the NotifyIcon control instance and add it to the page.

    using Syncfusion.Windows.Tools.Controls;
using System.Windows;
   
namespace NotifyIcon_GettingStarted
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Interaction logic for MainWindow.xaml
    /// </summary>
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            NotifyIcon notifyIcon = new NotifyIcon();
            notifyIcon.Height = 80;
            notifyIcon.Width = 150;
            this.Content = notifyIcon;
        }
    }
}

Show the notify icon

You can set the icon to the NotifyIcon control using the Icon property and then display the notify icon by setting the ShowInTaskBar property to true.

<syncfusion:NotifyIcon Name="notify" Header="NotifyIcon" Height="80" ShowInTaskBar="True" Width="150" Icon="images\notifyicon.png" />

Set the icon to WPF NotifyIcon

Text

You can use the Text property to add text to the NotifyIcon control. It will be shown on the notify icon while hovering.

<syncfusion:NotifyIcon Name="notify" Header="NotifyIcon" Height="80" ShowInTaskBar="True" Width="150" Icon="images\notifyicon.png" Text="Notify me" />
notify.Text = "Notify me";

Set the text value to WPF NotifyIcon

Tooltip

You can show the tooltip for NotifyIcon control by using the ShowBalloonTip method. You can also add a title and text by using the BalloonTipTitle and BalloonTipText properties. You can enable the title by setting the BalloonTipHeaderVisibility property to true.

<syncfusion:NotifyIcon Name="notify" Header="NotifyIcon" Height="80" ShowInTaskBar="True" Width="150" 
                       Icon="images\notifyicon.png" Text="Notify me"
                       BalloonTipTitle="Default NotifyIcon" BalloonTipText="Custom NotifyIcon" 
                       BalloonTipHeaderVisibility="Visible" />
//Show the balloontip.
notify.ShowBalloonTip(3000);

Set the tooltip to WPF NotifyIcon

NOTE

View sample in GitHub.

Theme

NotifyIcon supports various built-in themes. Refer to the below links to apply themes for the NotifyIcon,

Setting theme to WPF NotifyIcon