Taskbar Helper

Taskbar Helper is a system add-on and optimization tool of sorts. It is hard to describe in what category this application should fall, but it does something that is very useful.

It can send any application to the system tray area. Apparently, its designer struggled with too many open windows and too many minimized windows that were taking too much space on the Taskbar, so he designed an app that could send those windows away to a place more private.

When you launch Taskbar Helper, it will automatically detect all open applications. It will also detect all instances of Windows Explorer, so even if you have 20 folders opened, you will be able to hide them. On the list of running apps, there are three checkable boxes: Show in SysTray On Hide, Hide on Minimize, and Hide window from Taskbar only. These options are pretty self-explanatory. Hide on Minimize is a great way of hiding apps, but what is better is that the application has hotkey support, so you can simply use keys on your keyboard to send windows to the tray area. By default, the hotkey assigned to hiding apps is F12.

All in all, this app is very ingenious. It works well and it has a great user interface. It is also very innovative.