Customization for system tray and shell extension icons

  • 7018057
  • 16-Sep-2016
  • 04-Nov-2016

Environment

Client for Open Enterprise Server 2 SP4 (IR4)

Situation

In some cases, it is desirable to use custom bitmap images in the Client for Open Enterprise Server. The Client for OES already provided for the ability to use customized Welcome screen and login dialog bitmaps, but not for the system tray and shell extension icons.

Resolution

The Client for Open Enterprise Server 2 SP4 (IR4) and later provides the capability for customizing the system tray icon and the shell extension icon that will be displayed by the client.  A set of optional Micro Focus-provided alternative icons are available for download from "Alternative Icons for use with Client for Open Enterprise Server". You can customize the Client for Open Enterprise Server installation set to deploy one of these Micro Focus-provided alternative icons, or one of your own custom icons, using the following instructions and information.

A change to allow customization of the shell extension icon and the system tray icon has been included beginning in the Client for Open Enterprise Server 2 SP4 (IR4) release.  This is in addition to the custom credential provider bitmap and custom login dialog bitmap support that were already present.

In addition, functionality has been added to SETUP.EXE which will allow the administrator to include custom image files within the installation set for Client for Open Enterprise Server 2 SP4 (IR4) and later, and SETUP.EXE itself will handle copying the custom images during installation and configuring the registry setting needed to enable use of the custom image.  This functionality is available for all four custom images: shell extension icon, system tray icon, credential provider bitmap and login dialog bitmap.

The functionality is enabled through the INSTALL.INI, as documented within the INSTALL.INI itself.  In addition, example image files have been included within the installation set for Client for Open Enterprise Server 2 SP4 (IR4) and later, to provide specific example of what image type and size will work. The self-documenting INSTALL.INI includes this section for "CustomImages"

[CustomImages]
;
; Optional custom image files that can be included in the installation set area.
;
; THESE IMAGE FILES MUST EXIST IN THE "INSTALL" FOLDER at the root of the
; installation set.  Only the file name can be specified in the following
; configuration fields; absolute or relative path names cannot be included.
;

; CustomCredentialProviderBitmap=ClientCredentialProviderBitmap.bmp
;
; If specified, this image file will be copied to the C:\ProgramData\Novell\Client\
; folder, and the full path to the file will be set as the "Default bitmap for Welcome
; screen tiles" in the "Advanced Login" section of Client Properties.  Recommended
; image size is 448x448, but will be scaled down by Windows according to platform
; and display characteristics.
;
CustomCredentialProviderBitmap=

; CustomLoginDialogBitmap=ClientLoginDialogBitmap.bmp
;
; If specified, this image file will be copied to the C:\ProgramData\Novell\Client\
; folder, and the full path to the file will be set as the "Default bitmap for Client
; Login dialog" in the "Advanced Login" section of Client Properties.  General
; recommended size is around 800x200, but may become scaled down depending upon display
; characteristics.  The login dialog size may increase if possible to try and
; accomodate differently-sized images.
;
CustomLoginDialogBitmap=

; CustomSystemTrayIcon=ClientSystemTrayIcon.ico
;
; If specified, this image file will be copied to the C:\ProgramData\Novell\Client\
; folder, and the full path to the file will be set into the registry as the
; "Custom Systray Icon" value in [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Novell\Network Provider].
; Recommend including at least 16x16, 20x20, 24x24 and 32x32 resolutions for Windows
; to present optimized versions of the smaller-sized icons.
;
CustomSystemTrayIcon=

; CustomShellExtensionIcon=ClientShellExtensionIcon.ico
;
; If specified, this image file will be copied to the C:\ProgramData\Novell\Client\
; folder, and the full path to the file will be set into the registry as the
; "Custom Shell Extension Icon" value in [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Novell\Network Provider].
; Recommend including at least 16x16, 20x20, 24x24 and 32x32 resolutions for Windows
; to present optimized versions of the smaller-sized icons.
;
CustomShellExtensionIcon=

Additional Information

If entering the configuration for these settings directly in the registry, the corresponding registry entries and parameters for each of these settings are:

INSTALL.INI Name: CustomCredentialProviderBitmap
OES Client Properties Name: Default bitmap for Welcome screen tiles
Key Name: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Novell\Authentication\NCCredProvider]
Value Name: Tile Bitmap
Value Data Type: REG_SZ
Help/Comment: Specifies the path and filename for a bitmap (.bmp) that will be used on Welcome screen tiles whenever a user-specific bitmap is not yet known. Recommended image size is 448x448, but will be scaled down by Windows according to platform and display characteristics.

INSTALL.INI Name: CustomLoginDialogBitmap
OES Client Properties Name: Default bitmap for Novell Login dialog
Key Name: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Novell\Login\Banner]
Value Name: Image
Value Data Type: REG_SZ
Help/Comment: Specifies the path and filename for a bitmap that will be used on the Novell Login dialog in place of the default Novell Client bitmap. General recommended size is around 800x200, but may become scaled down depending upon display characteristics.  The login dialog size may increase if possible to try and accomodate differently-sized images.

INSTALL.INI Name: CustomSystemTrayIcon
OES Client Properties Name: This setting is not present at this time
Key Name: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Novell\Network Provider]
Value Name: Custom Systray Icon
Value Date Type: REG_SZ
Help/Comment: Specifies the path and filename for a bitmap that will be used for the Micro Focus Client for Open Enterprise Server's system tray icon. The bitmaps need to be in .ICO format, which allows for the inclusion of multiple resolutions within the same file, and is the "icon" format that Windows is expecting. Recommend including at least 16x16, 20x20, 24x24 and 32x32 resolutions for Windows to present optimized versions of the smaller-sized icons.

INSTALL.INI Name: CustomShellExtensionIcon
OES Client Properties Name: This setting is not present at this time
Key Name: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Novell\Network Provider]
Value Name: Custom Shell Extension Icon
Value Data Type: REG_SZ
Help/Comment: Specifies the path and filename for a bitmap that will be used for the shell extensions such as when right-clicking a file or folder located on a Micro Focus file server, from within Windows Explorer. The bitmaps need to be in .ICO format, which allows for the inclusion of multiple resolutions within the same file, and is the "icon" format that Windows is expecting. Recommend including at least 16x16, 20x20, 24x24 and 32x32 resolutions for Windows to present optimized versions of the smaller-sized icons.