What is TortoiseHg Overlay Icon Server

Question

I just install TortoiseHg, to act as Mercurial client tool.

However, in my Vista, whenever I start, there is a TortoiseHg Overlay Icon Server at my notification bar.

Is quite annoying. What is the purpose of that? Can I disable it?

Answer 1

The notification icon is part of a service* which gives us those handy icons on the corner of version-controlled files/folders. (The little icons demonstrate whether the file is "up-to-date", modified, etc.)

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If you want to get rid of the icon:

1. Right-click on Desktop
2. Click on TortoiseHg->Explorer Extension Settings
3. Click on Icons
4. Uncheck Show Icon under Taskbar

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My current setup is that I've disabled TortoiseHgOverlayServer from starting up with Windows through msconfig's Startup tab. (To run msconfig, press Windows+R, and type in msconfig.)

Then, when I want my icons to update, I right click on my project folder, and click on TortoiseHg->Update Icons. This starts TortoiseHgOverlayServer manually, and it'll only be there until you log off Windows.

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*It's not really a Windows service, but it acts kinda like one, so...