TrayAppControl

                                                                           

A handy tool that allows to simultaneously start and stop a set of processes from system tray¹.

Key features:

• Allows to hide console windows 🖥 👍
• Allows to control one or multiple processes
• Allows to use different sets of commands for Start and Stop actions.

It is very handy in case you work with apps that cannot hide their console window, i.e. Apache².

✔ Usage

• Download the app, extract the archive somewhere (or compile the code).
• Create an YAML file that describes your service (see below)
• Create a shortcut or Windows Scheduler task or a .cmd that launches the app:
  TrayAppControl.exe C:\full\path\to\service.yaml

ℹ Tested on Windows 10 21H1. Not tested on other versions.

If necessary, you can launch multiple instances of TrayAppControl with different configuration files:

TrayAppControl.exe C:\full\path\to\web-service.yaml
TrayAppControl.exe C:\full\path\to\ml-service.yaml

Example configuration

The following example .yaml file illustrates the full range of capabilities of TrayAppControl.

It defines a problem-specific set of nginx + Apache + MariaDB + PHP7/PHP8 used in a local dev environment.

# This file defines a set of executables (a "service") that will be controlled by TrayAppControl

service-name: WWW Server
icon-running: C:\TrayAppControl\sample\running.ico
icon-stopped: C:\TrayAppControl\sample\stopped.ico

# if true, the service will be started immediately on TrayAppControl start
# if false, you have to manually start it via context menu
start-immediately: true

# if true, the service will be stopped when TrayAppControl app is being closed
#    (either per user request or on shutdown/reboot/logout)
# if false, the service will be left "as is"
stop-on-shutdown: true
# NOTE: do not rely on this feature, it is not guaranteed that it will work in 100% cases
# NOTE: no error messages will be displayed ever on shutdown


# these apps will be "managed" by TrayAppControl, i.e.
# on "Start" action these app will be started and their process handles will be "remembered", 
# so on "Stop" action their processes will be terminated
managed-apps:
  - command:     C:\httpd\bin\httpd.exe
    arguments:   -D php7
    workdir:     C:\httpd\bin\
    hide-window: true

  - command:     C:\httpd\bin\httpd.exe
    arguments:   -D php8
    workdir:     C:\httpd\bin\
    hide-window: true

# these commands will be executed on "Start" action "as is", without remembering process handles
on-start:
  - command:   C:\nginx\nginx.exe
    workdir:   C:\nginx
    hide-window: true
  
  - command:   C:\mysql\bin\mysqld.exe
    arguments: --skip-grant-tables --log_syslog=0
    hide-window: true

# these commands will be executed on "Stop" action "as is"
on-stop:
  - command:   C:\mysql\bin\mysqladmin.exe
    arguments: -u root shutdown
    hide-window: true
    
  - command:   C:\nginx\nginx.exe
    arguments: -s stop
    workdir:   C:\nginx
    hide-window: true

With this example configuration, TrayAppControl:

• On Start service:
  • Launches two³ instances of C:\httpd\bin\httpd.exe, hides their windows, remembers their process handles
  • Launches nginx process (without remembering its process handle)
  • Launches mysqld process (without remembering its process handle)
• On Stop service:
  • Terminates "remembered" Apache processes
  • Executes nginx -s stop command
  • Executes mysqladmin -u root shutdown command

🔐 Privacy

✔ This software neither collects any data nor phones home.

⚖ License: MIT

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

• Full license text
• Acknowledgements and licenses for 3rd party components

Footnotes

1. Officially known as Taskbar Notification Area. ↩

2. While Apache can be installed as Windows service (httpd -k install), it is not always convenient to run it as a service. ↩

3. With different params (i.e. -D php8) to be used with the corresponding <IfDefine> sections of httpd.conf. ↩