How to Create a Notify Icon in c# without a form

Tested with .NET Framework 2.0 and Windows XP Professional SP2

This has been bugging me for weeks. I wanted a formless application with a Notify Icon but there didn’t seem to be way to do it. After searching for a solution, I figured I’d give it a try myself. As it turned out it was so easy it was ridiculous. All you have to do create a class that is inherits the iContainer interface. When you create the instance of the notify icon, pass a container object. After that, you can use at as if it was on a form. Make sure you set the Icon property as well. I also have this working with a context menu and I’m guess it will work with any control that requires an iContainer interface. When you create the project, go to the project properties and make sure Output Type is set to Windows Application. Here’s the code:

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Drawing;

class ControlContainer : IContainer
{
   ComponentCollection _components;

  public ControlContainer()
   {
     _components = new ComponentCollection(new IComponent[] { });
   }

  public void Add(IComponent component)
   { }

  public void Add(IComponent component, string Name)
   { }

  public void Remove(IComponent component)
   { }

  public ComponentCollection Components
   {
     get { return _components; }
   }

  public void Dispose()
   {
     _components = null;
   }
}

class MainEntryClass
{
   static void Main(string[] args)
   {
     SomeClass sc = new SomeClass();
     Application.Run();
   }
}

class SomeClass
{
   ControlContainer container = new ControlContainer();
   private System.Windows.Forms.NotifyIcon notifyIcon1;

  public SomeClass()
   {
     this.notifyIcon1 = new NotifyIcon(container);
   }
}