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I am writing a VB.NET application in VS2017, to run on Windows 10. I want the main (and only) Form to minimize down to a System Tray icon. That part I have working fine. The next part, display a Balloon Tip popup notification (e.g., "Application is still running"), is not working at all.

I have already checked/noted the following:

  • The NotifyIcon object has an icon assigned to it in the designer grid as well as in the vb.net code-behind for the form, as does its associated BalloonTipIcon member/property
  • The Group Policy on the the machine does not appear to forbid the use of Balloon Tips
  • Balloon tips do not appear to be disabled in the registry
  • The program works as expected in Windows 8.1 Pro and displays the BalloonTip, but does not in Windows 10 Enterprise N 2016 LTSB.

The machine is located in a domain that does have Group Policy administration going on, however the resultant policy set found on my machine does not seem to indicate that balloon tips have been disabled.

Copying-and-pasting exact code from StackOverflow does not work. The problem must then be in the system itself.

This is the code (which works on W8.1 but not W10):

Private Sub frmMain_Resize(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Me.Resize

    Try

        If Me.WindowState = FormWindowState.Minimized Then

            NotifyIcon1.Visible = True
            NotifyIcon1.Icon = SystemIcons.Application
            NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipIcon = ToolTipIcon.Info
            NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipTitle = "App Title"
            NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipText = "The App is still open!"
            NotifyIcon1.ShowBalloonTip(50000)
            ShowInTaskbar = False

        End If

    Catch ex As Exception

        ErrorHandler(ex)

    End Try

End Sub

Where else can I look?

Cross-posted on StackOverflow

David Mancini
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  • Before downvoting please note that the issue IS NOT a coding issue, it is a SYSTEM issue, Thank you. – David Mancini Aug 15 '18 at 20:37
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    Actually, the issue is that cross-posting is *not* allowed. See [Is cross-posting a question on multiple Stack Exchange sites permitted if the question is on-topic for each site?](//meta.stackexchange.com/a/64069). You'd better quickly decide whether to delete this question or [the other one](//stackoverflow.com/q/51866030). Otherwise, the community will decide for you ;-) – robinCTS Aug 17 '18 at 05:08

1 Answers1

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So it turns out I fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book. I needed to do a full reboot after altering one the registry keys.

So, for me, making Balloon Tips appear in Windows 10 needed the following:

  1. Open regedit.exe

  2. Navigate to HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

  3. Set (or add) EnableBalloonTips (as REG_DWORD) and set value to 1

  4. Reboot.

Voilà. Problem solved.

David Mancini
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