Batch icon message on task bar - batch-file

Question

Is it possible to make a Batch, or .vbs if needed, is it possible to make batch have a little icon down there with the flag, battery and volume.
I want it to be a "Shutting down in xx minutes/hours", and mayyybbe clicking it cancels' it.
Thanks in advance :)

Answer 1

Well, I know how to accomplish part of what you want -- making a systray balloon tip by borrowing from PowerShell. But I don't know how to make it listen for dismissal of the balloon. Maybe someone else can offer another answer building upon mine?
Anyway, I use this for a conversion script I made to convert flac to mp3 in batches. Feel free to hack it for your own evil purposes.
#echo off
setlocal
for %%I in (*.flac) do (
rem // This initiates the systray balloon.
call :systray converting from "%%~nxI" to "%%~nI.mp3"
)
goto :EOF
rem // Here's the :systray function
:systray <message>
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set "args=%*"
set "args=!args:'=''!"
set "code="[void] [Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName('System.Windows.Forms');^
$o=New-Object Windows.Forms.NotifyIcon;$o.Icon='%systemroot%\System32\PerfCenterCpl.ico';^
$o.BalloonTipIcon='Info';$o.BalloonTipText='!args!';$o.BalloonTipTitle='%~nx0';$o.Visible=1;^
$o.ShowBalloonTip(10000);Start-Sleep -M 12000;$o.Dispose();Exit""
start /b "" "powershell" %code%
endlocal & goto :EOF
The n values in $o.ShowBalloonTip(n1) and Start-Sleep -Mn2 are in milliseconds. Salt to taste.
Update: I found a bit about registering an event for $o.BalloonTipClicked as well as a lovely example in the wild. Basically, replace this:
$o.ShowBalloonTip(10000);Start-Sleep -M 12000;$o.Dispose();Exit
... with this:
$o.ShowBalloonTip(10000);register-objectevent $o BalloonTipClicked clicked;^
if (wait-event clicked -t 12) {$true} else {$false}; $o.Dispose(); Exit
You also need to execute powershell in a single threaded apartment for the event to work.
start /b "" "powershell" -STA %code%
Now, you need to figure out how to make that relevant back in the context of your batch process. For one thing, you'd probably no longer be able to use start /b to make the balloon tip non-blocking, and you'd probably use a for /F loop to capture the output of the powershell command.
Adding to your worries, I propose that "Shutting down in xx minutes" is not entirely user-friendly. What if "Shutting down in 30 minutes" appeared 29 minutes ago, but the user just now saw it? "Shutting down at 9:51 AM" might be better.
So with all this in mind, since what you want is event driven and since the batch language doesn't handle date-time math all that easily, I suggest doing the whole damn thing in PowerShell. Save this with a .ps1 extension. Right-click and run with PowerShell. Or if you want to execute it from a cmd console, do powershell ".\scriptname.ps1".
set-executionpolicy remotesigned
if ([threading.thread]::CurrentThread.GetApartmentState() -eq "MTA") {
& powershell.exe -window minimized -sta $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition
exit
}
[void] [Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName('System.Windows.Forms')
$minutes = 30
$launch_time = (Get-Date).AddMinutes($minutes).ToShortTimeString()
$o = New-Object Windows.Forms.NotifyIcon
$o.Icon = "$env:SystemRoot\System32\PerfCenterCpl.ico"
$o.BalloonTipIcon = "Info"
$o.BalloonTipText = "Shutting down at $launch_time"
$o.BalloonTipTitle = "Shutdown pending..."
$o.Visible = 1
function show-balloon { $o.ShowBalloonTip($minutes * 60 * 1000) }
show-balloon
$o_hover = [Windows.Forms.MouseEventHandler]{ show-balloon }
$o.add_MouseMove($o_hover)
register-objectevent $o BalloonTipClicked clicked
if (wait-event clicked -t ($minutes * 60)) {
remove-event clicked
$o.BalloonTipText = "Have a nice day!"
$o.BalloonTipTitle = "Shutdown aborted"
$o.ShowBalloonTip(10000)
if (wait-event clicked -t 10) { remove-event clicked }
} else {
# Initiate shutdown sequence on my mark. Authorization rojo alpha 3. Mark.
stop-computer
}
unregister-event clicked
$o.Dispose()
Bill_Stewart, if you're reading this, I know you're pleased. As it happens, PowerShell is indeed the correct tool for the job this time.