marcomaroni.it / taskbar-calculator
A simple, small calculator placed discreetly near the Windows Taskbar or anywhere on the screen
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C++ 84.3%
C 5.5%
PowerShell 4.5%
Inno Setup 3.7%
Batchfile 2.0%
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README.md

TaskbarCalculator#

TaskbarCalculator is a C++/Win32 application for Windows 11 that sits in the notification area (system tray) and shows an always-on-top calculator window driven by keyboard input.

The project started as a migration of a previous DeskBand (an in-process COM extension hosted by the taskbar), which Windows 11 no longer loads for third-party shell extensions. The current version is a standalone executable that adds a tray icon: left-click shows/hides the window, right-click opens a menu with Show/Hide, Start at login, About, and Exit.

Code layout#

  • App.cpp — entry point (wWinMain), single-instance handling, tray icon, and hidden owner window.
  • CalculatorWindow.cpp/.h — calculator window, keyboard input handling, number formatting based on regional settings, positioning and persistence.
  • Calculator.cpp/.h — calculation engine, independent from the UI, based on a state machine (init, first_oper, operation, second_oper, result, error). Supports the four basic operations, square root, percentage, sign change, and reciprocal (1/x).
  • Settings.cpp/.h, StartupManager.cpp/.h, VisualStyle.cpp/.h, TrayIcon.cpp/.h, Utils.cpp/.h — support modules (registry-based window position/visibility, start at login, classic/themed visuals, tray icon, misc utilities).

More detailed architecture and conventions are documented in CLAUDE.md.

Build#

Requires Visual Studio 2022 (v143 toolset), Windows SDK 10.0.26100.0, and the C++/WinRT components for the start-at-login feature.

msbuild TaskbarCalculator.vcxproj /p:Configuration=Debug   /p:Platform=x64
msbuild TaskbarCalculator.vcxproj /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64

Build the .vcxproj directly, not the .sln (which references a setup project not included in this repository). The executable is produced at x64\<Config>\TaskbarCalculator.exe.

Test#

The calculation engine (Calculator.cpp/.h) is decoupled from the precompiled header and is compiled and run separately with a small header-only harness:

tests\build-and-run.cmd

from an "x64 Native Tools Command Prompt".

Packaging#

Two distribution paths are supported:

  • Classic installer: Packaging\TaskbarCalculatorSetup.iss, compiled with Inno Setup (ISCC.exe), or via the Packaging\build-setup.cmd script, which runs a Release x64 build and compiles the installer in one step.
  • MSIX: PowerShell scripts in Packaging\ (MakeAssets.ps1, MakeCert.ps1, BuildMsix.ps1), kept for a possible future Microsoft Store submission.

In both cases, start-at-login uses the MSIX StartupTask API when the app is packaged, falling back to the HKCU\...\Run registry value when installed via the classic path.