The Tray Menu

The tray menu

OpenShaker guide › Using OpenShaker

The tray icon's right-click menu, item by item, and the notifications OpenShaker shows while its window is hidden.

Icon and tooltip

The icon is in colour while the haptics run and grey otherwise; hovering shows the state. Details on Is it working?. A small red ! means an update is available (Updating). Left-click opens the window.

Menu items

Right-click the icon for the menu. When a newer version is available, two items come first: Update to X.Y.Z (downloads, checks and installs it, then OpenShaker comes back in the tray) and What's new (the release page in your browser); see Updating. Then:

1. Open OpenShaker shows the window and brings it to the front.
2. Status lines (grey, for reading only; refreshed about once a second):
   • Haptics: running (<device> [<audio system>]), or Haptics: running (<device> [<audio system>], N dropouts) if the audio has stuttered. Other states: Haptics: starting..., Haptics: NOT running, Haptics: off or Haptics: off (--no-start).
   • Game: -, Game: none detected (waiting for telemetry) or Game: <game> at <fps> fps, plus (paused) when the game is paused or in a menu.
   • Profile: <profile name>, for example Profile: forza_horizon (Horizon 5 and 6 both use it), or Profile: defaults.
   • Output: silent or Output: <level> dBFS.
   • Problem: ... appears only when something is wrong. For example, when another program holds a game port you'll see "cannot bind UDP 5555 ... is HaptiConnect or another tool using it?"
3. Haptics on is the same switch as in the window. A tick means on.
4. Restart haptics does the same as the window button.
5. Test tone does the same as the window button.
6. Start with Windows is ticked when OpenShaker starts at sign-in. Click it to change that.
7. Open settings folder opens %APPDATA%\OpenShaker in File Explorer.
8. Send feedback / report a bug opens the project's GitHub "new issue" page in your browser. You can choose "Bug report", "Idea / feature request" or "Hardware / feel report", and there is a Discussions link for questions. Nothing is attached or sent automatically. If no browser opens, the address appears in the window's message line: https://github.com/baddo-baddo/OpenShaker/issues/new/choose
9. Quit saves your settings, stops the haptics, removes the icon and exits.

Pop-up notifications

While the window is hidden, OpenShaker uses tray notifications to tell you about:

• the output device not being found (once per session);
• the shaker stopping: "<device> stopped playing. OpenShaker picks it up again when it is back.";
• an error when switching the haptics on or restarting them fails (the automatic retries stay quiet);
• the Haptics on switch not being saved;
• the first time you close the window (see Closing the window).

An available update never shows a notification: only the badge, the two menu items and the window's bar. An automatic update shows Updating to X.Y.Z... while it runs, and OpenShaker comes back in the tray.

---

Next: Presets and strengths

See also: The main window · Is it working?