for questions about the system notification area (which is often called the system tray), on topics such as examining or adjusting the tray icons in the notification area, and issuing or capturing notification messages handled by the notification area. For questions about creating or modifying a single tray icon use the trayicon tag instead.
The system notification area is part of a graphical desktop environment which acts as an anchor point for notification messages issued by the operating system and by running applications, and also for application status icons called tray icons (see trayicon).
The system notification area is often known as the system tray, though this is a misnomer, a hangover from a pre-release feature of Microsoft Windows 95.
In desktop environments that support a notification area, the area is easily accessible and always visible (though the user may have the option to customise its visibility). For example, in Windows XP and in KDE 4, the system notification area is nestled alongside the clock on the main taskbar. This allows important notifications to be noticed immediately by the user, and makes it convenient for the user to access the tray icon for a running application even if the application window is minimized or hidden.
