Most PC users have more than one task going on at any given time. If you think of your PC as a desk, all the things going on may very well lead to a very cluttered desk.
So what can you do to minimize the mess, so to speak? One way of doing this is by minimizing Outlook to the system tray.Â
Outlook is quite often used throughout the day. It can prove burdensome to keep invoking Outlook every time mail is sent or received. Outlook also occupies valuable “real estate†on your taskbar. Minimizing Outlook to the system tray will allow other ongoing applications to occupy the space in your taskbar.
A simple registry tweak is all you need to do this. This registry tweak will only work with Windows XP. A word of caution before making any changes to your registry. Always back-up your registry first. Registry changes are irreversible without a back-up.
The procedure is quite simple.
- Click on the Start button. Next, click Run and type in Regedit. This will bring up the Registry.
- Look for HKEY_CURRENT_USER. This may be expanded by clicking on the little cross at the left.
- When HKEY_CURRENT_USER has been expanded, look for the Software folder. Expand this.
- You will find the Microsoft folder. Click and expand this folder.
- Once you’ve done that, look for Office. Click and expand again.
- You should see 10.0. When you do, expand the folder.
- You should find the Outlook folder. Again, expand this.
- Go to the Preferences folder
- From the Edit menu on top, select New. Next, select DWORD value.
- Name the DWORD value MinToTray.
- At this point, you can choose to minimize Outlook 2002 to the tray or taskbar.
- To minimize to tray, put in 1 as the value data.
- To minimize to taskbar, put in 0.
- To wrap up the entire procedure, exit the Registry and reboot your PC.