Interactive Taskbar Icon

OS:

🪟 Windows-only

The optional taskbar companion gives the logged-in user access to Desomnia’s sleepless controls and activity information. Install Interactive Taskbar Icon through the Windows installer; rerun the installer in Modify mode if needed.

Permissions

All user controls are denied by default, including for administrators. Installing the companion grants no permissions. Enable each capability explicitly on an Everyone, User, or Administrator selector under SessionMonitor:

<SystemMonitor version="3">
  <SessionMonitor>
    <User name="^Alice$"
          allowControlSleep="true"
          allowControlInspection="true"
          allowControlSession="self" />
  </SessionMonitor>
</SystemMonitor>

allowControlSleep allows manual keep-awake settings and immediate system sleep. allowControlInspection separately allows requesting an inspection and receiving machine-wide activity tokens. With inspection permission alone, Show activity opens the dialog with sleep controls disabled. Without inspection permission, the whole lower activity section is hidden and no usage tokens are sent to the companion. Changing the activity-based keep-awake checkbox requires both permissions.

allowControlSession allows session disconnection and console switching. self means only the requesting session; a regular expression selects target user names, and true or * selects all targets. Switching the console also requires permission for the session being displaced. Session details are limited to the caller’s own session and permitted targets.

Selectors apply in order: Everyone, matching User entries, then Administrator. Later explicit boolean values replace earlier values. Session selectors accumulate; allowControlSession="false" clears previous grants. The service rechecks permissions for each command. Restart the service after changing these settings so existing sessions receive their updated permissions.

Language

The companion uses German for German Windows display-language settings (including Germany, Austria and Switzerland), and English otherwise. Language is selected per signed-in user. Date and time formatting follows that user’s regional settings. Translations use standard .NET .resx resources; the installer includes the German satellite resource assembly alongside the English fallback resources.

Sleepless controls

Use the icon’s configuration dialog to keep the computer awake permanently, until a chosen time, or according to monitored activity. Timed mode releases the manual hold at the selected time (up to 24 days ahead); permanent mode has no deadline. Activity-based mode uses the resources reported by the service; it is not just a keyboard/mouse idle timer.

The dialog shows the activity reported by the monitors, which helps explain why Desomnia considers the system in use. A permanent or timed manual hold can keep the machine awake even when ordinary activity monitors are idle.

Left-click toggles the manual keep-awake setting when sleep control is permitted; double-click requests immediate sleep. Right-click opens the available commands. For inspection-only users, left-click opens the activity dialog.

Deployment and troubleshooting

The bridge runs in the LocalSystem service and launches an unelevated companion in each configured user session. Keep service binaries, plugins and the service configuration in administrator-controlled locations. Companion logs are stored in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Desomnia\logs. spawnMinions="false" on SessionMonitor disables companions.

The versioned pipe protocol requires upgrading the bridge and companion together; older binaries cannot connect. The companion verifies its service endpoint, and the service restricts each pipe to the intended Windows logon session and launched process. A failed companion is restarted with increasing delays, up to five times per session during the service lifetime.

Display power requests

The companion also makes display keep-awake requests on behalf of the service in the local console session. Enable keepDisplayAwake if the screen should stay on while Desomnia holds its sleepless request. With no console session there is no local display request to hold.

The setting belongs in the system configuration; installing the icon alone does not enable it. See Troubleshooting for display and keep-awake problems.