Know of a good replacement for systray.exe?

Question

Necessary background: I'm using a crippled version of Windows XP in which explorer.exe will not run, so I've been using the Task Manager's New Task dialog to run programs, copy files, etc. I am unable to reinstall because I cannot find my copy of Windows XP Professional.

I am using a program that is only accessible through the system tray's notification area—those little icons next to the clock. However, one of the consequences of explorer.exe's failure is that I don't have a start menu, system tray, clock, etc., so I can't access this program. Do you know of a program that replicates the behavior of the system tray notification area? Not a dock, necessarily—I can switch between programs just fine; I only need access to the notification icons that would normally hang around next to the clock in traditional XP. I've tried TrayModule and AquaDock unsuccessfully. Any guidance here would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

While perhaps rather roundabout, I do know that ObjectDock has a system tray plugin which will display the icons usually found in the system tray. I think RocketDock also has a system tray plugin (or can use the one from ObjectDock), and is completely free. I've used ObjectDock as a complete replacement for the start menu/task bar/system tray before, and the free/lite version should fulfill your needs.

Answer 2

It turns out that the easiest and cheapest solution was to use EmergeDesktop and disable all aspects of it except for EmergeCore and EmergeTray, with RocketDock for more traditional taskbar activities. So thanks for that, Darth Android! That's why I'm voting your answer up, but not voting up the actual answer: you've made my life a lot easier, if not actually in the way I was intending.

Answer 3

I love the Emerge Systray solution. I use AutoHotKey as some sort of Shell Replacement. I work mostly in Emacs, so I found it a waste of resource to use Explorer as the shell, but I need a Tray,because sometimes an application must use a system tray to fully use it feature