Windows/Linux: Free note-taking app Incollector is a pretty convenient and lightweight way to keep small bits of data close at hand, while also keeping everything organised and easily accessible. Pull up Incollector from the system tray and tell it what kind of note you're adding—conversation snippet, web address, plain text, among others—and what tags apply to it. Add comments, give it a star rating, and all that data can be used to create saved searches, filter by tags or ratings, and even search from the system tray by right-clicking the icon. Incollector isn't a high-powered, universal note collector, but it fills its desktop role nicely. Incollector is a free download for Windows and Linux systems.

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Windows only: Freeware applications from web site E-sushi put common Windows actions—like opening and closing your CD or DVD drive—in your system tray. Apart from the eject system tray shortcut (through a tool called Disc Tray Toggler), E-sushi's iPower lets you logoff, reboot, or shutdown from the system tray, and MiniBin puts your Recycle Bin in your system tray. The downside, of course, is that you have to run an extra application to get each individual feature, so you'll probably want to determine just how much each feature is worth to you depending on how much RAM you've got to spare. All three apps are freeware, Windows only.

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Windows only: Free Windows utility DesktopOnTop adds an icon to your system tray that provides quick access to the files and shortcuts on your desktop, in either a pop-up list or a mini-desktop view. The right-click list isn't all that much more convenient than the "Desktop" toolbar that Windows itself provides, but the ordered desktop view is a boon for those who stack and filter their files on their background. The major drawback to DesktopOnTop is that its mini-desktop's wallpaper won't match yours (unless you cede your wallpaper to one of its designs), but color-picking and transparency settings can make it unobtrusive. DesktopOnTop is a free download for Windows systems only.

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Windows only: Freeware application Trayconizer turns any application into a system tray application in just a few steps. Unlike other previously mentioned minimize-to-system-tray apps like TrayIt or 4t Tray Minimizer, Trayconizer starts applications in the system tray from the moment you run them. To use it, you need to tweak the shortcut you're using to launch the application (right-click shortcut and select Properties) by adding the path to Trayconizer in front of the app like so: C:\Path\To\Trayconizer.exe C:\Windows\Notepad.exe. Trayconizer is freeware, Windows only, requires no install, and consumes a paltry 2MB of RAM.

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When icons start disappearing from Windows Vista's system tray—like the networking, volume control, or time display—and you can't restore them from the standard options menus, the itch to re-install can be strong indeed. The How-To Geek, however, finds the balm for disappearing Vista icons in the registry, where a few key options need to be deleted to restore your system tray to functionality. Hit the link for instructions on how to kill out the options yourself, or download a registry hack that does it for you.

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Windows tip: Weblog gHacks details how to customize your system tray to selectively show and hide system tray apps

Right-click the start menu button and select Properties. Uncheck Hide Inactive Icons to display all icons. You could alternatively click on customize and select items that you always want to see.

If you prefer the behaviour as is, this isn't for you, but if you get irritated by the often-flaky behavior of that little arrow, this might be just the tweak you've been looking for.