Prevent Leaving An Icon In System Tray On Program Exit

The Windows 7 taskbar shows a preview of the window. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

11-April-2018


Prevent Leaving An Icon In System Tray On Program Exit. I had a problem with one of my applications about this. I was able to minimize it to System Tray. The App Icon was removed from the Taskbar, alright. But when the application was restored and closed, the icon remains in the System Tray. What's worse, I didn't notice it!

This was complicated by the fact that I did a routine cycle of closing and opening the program using scripts and some free apps downloadable from the internet, so that for a period of time, System Tray was filled up with icons of the same program, all N-1 of which are invalid handles!

I got a good scolding from my boss about this. Why? When I researched this problem, I found out that it is a prevalent issue. There are a number of forums that discusses the same exact problem, as obviously, I am not the only one having it. No, I am not the first one, and I will not be the last.

What did I find? That it was, and it remains, an issue by MS. Yep. The software giant company MS. They have it as a bug, and it still isn't fixed. The full details, I cannot tell here. But if you are interested, and if it happens to you in the future, you will know and understand what I mean.

Of course, there were suggestions presented in the forums to remedy the situation, and some of them I actually followed. Unfortunately, they didn't work perfectly for me. That is why so many icons still get left behind. And worse, this was implemented in one of our customers. Customer complain, that is what I got. That is how I got a good scolding. What's the point? I followed and applied in my code something that is 'wrong'. Yeah, I kinda missed that.

Anyway, how was that problem remedied?

This is the surprising this. It really is very simple, and it isn't something hidden.

In the FormClosed event, put (or add) these lines:

myNotifyIcon.Icon = null;
myNotifyIcon.Dispose();
Application.DoEvents();
if (Application.MessageLoop) {
    // WinForms app
    Application.DoEvents();
    Application.Exit();
}
else {
    // Console app
    Environment.Exit(0);
}

Surprising, isn't it? You gotta try it to know it! And with that, You should be all set. Prevent Leaving An Icon In System Tray On Program Exit.

Till then!

[Late posting; drafted on 18-October-2017]

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F5 Plug-in for Safari in Windows (8.1)

Apple Safari icon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

02-Nov-2014


I wanted to see if Safari is able to run the F5 plug-in so that I can use this browser when I do a remote access to my office network from home. I mean, this is the browser that is so free, so why not use it, for working from home?

When I typed in the URL of the VPN provided by IT user support, I was able to log-in alright. but when I clicked on the Terminal Server link that supposedly uses F5 plug-in, since F5 is not currently installed (for Safari browser), it goes by default to the page that gives the two options for installation: auto and manual.

Manual, obviously, didn't work. For why would it give the two options, instead of going straight away to the installation process?

When I clicked on the manual install link, nothing happened. So both auto and manual don't work!

I searched. And I had to be so specific, for Safari is primarily and mostly utilized in Macbooks. So I have to search for "F5 plugin download for Safari in Windows", and that gave a lot of results.

Took some sifting through all the irrelevant pages, and even those that says F5 support, tells you what hotfix to download and apply, but doesn't tell you where to download. So yes, it took some time, but not very long.

Found one that I believe is from the Far East, and why not, the page is in Chinese. Anyway, I won't lose anything for clicking a button here and there. and the icons are quite straightforward, so I managed to download the so-called hot fix.

Here's the link, before it is lost in my daily computing life: Hotfix-BIGIP-11.2.0-2713.0-HF3

And by the way, the more exhaustive list is here: F5 Product Family

I am still downloading the 235MB file as I post this article, so I can't tell if it works or not. At least I have the patch to start with.

Till then!

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Cybercriminals in the Cloud

Charlotte Dunlap,Forbes.com

Posted: 17 May 2009 2049 hrs

Security breaches continue to plague organizations, causing CIOs to question whether their traditional network security solutions are adequate for protecting against increasingly sophisticated cybercriminals.

Recently, it was reported that foreign hackers broke into the Pentagon's $300 billion fighter plane weapons program, a security breach apparently achieved through contractors' computers. The news is particularly disheartening to CIOs, because if the federal government--with all of its brain power and billions in funds--is still grappling with keeping its data secure, how can organizations and enterprises expect to avoid Internet threats and costly data breaches?

In a bit of serendipitous timing, security vendors discussed a new type of threat protection as they gathered at the annual RSA security conference in San Francisco last month. The much-discussed methodology included "in-the-cloud'' security intelligence, as it borrows from reputation services--an effective security technique that has primarily been used to verify sender data in e-mails. Specifically, CIOs will begin to see a major trend this year whereby infrastructure companies integrate reputation services with traditional networking devices such as Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) and firewalls.

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Reputation services can check, score and block IP addresses. These services have proved themselves to be critical to e-mail security and Web security solutions because they can block as much as 90% of bad traffic at an organization's gateway, alleviating the burden of filtering unwanted communications.

The point is that cybercrime and malware have become so advanced and relentless that trying to maintain a database with hundreds of thousands of signatures will no longer cut it in keeping companies up on the latest threats. Reputation services, on the other hand, dynamically use behavioral techniques in-the-cloud to weed out suspicious IP locations and behaviors.

So in the same way reputation services have significantly shored up secure messaging security by blocking bad IP addresses at the gateway, the intelligence services can also eliminate the need for IPS and firewalls to scan and inspect Internet-based content on the network. The services can intelligently block unwanted data in real-time in the cloud before it even approaches customers' networks.

Cisco is the first vendor to announce this type of "Global Correlation,'' which links its reputation services with security offerings, including its IPS and firewall products. Other major network security players will follow suit, probably even by this year. Cisco is offering a hybrid approach to its traditional IPS, which sits on the customer premise, but is now able to tap the intelligence of Cisco's Security Intelligence Operations to check for the latest Internet threats. (Cisco acquired e-mail security leader IronPort two years ago, primarily for its reputation service.)

Other IPS leaders expected to follow similar strategies include TippingPoint, McAfee, IBM ISS, Check Point and Sourcefire. Unified Threat Management (UTM) providers, including Fortinet, WatchGuard, SonicWall and Netgear, whose solutions include intrusion prevention, are also able to tap cloud-based reputation services to improve security.

So here's what CIOs need to keep in mind: Who's providing your IDS/IPS, UTM and firewall technology? Does the vendor have a strategy for integrating reputation services into its solutions? Better yet, does the vendor have access to a solid reputation service? These are questions to ask current or prospective technology partners, and as part of your homework, read up on how reputation services, including SenderBase (IronPort/Cisco), TrustedSource (Secure Computing, now McAfee), Trend Micro Network Reputation Services and the Commtouch Reputation Service, have improved e-mail security and Web security dramatically.

(Charlotte Dunlap is vice president of Research at Synergy Research Group. Her expertise is in network security and threat protection. )

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.