System tray icons are helpful especially if you have them in positions that let you locate them easily.
After I installed this Caps Lock notifier that puts two icons in the system tray, the order of icons I was used to was damaged. Not only that, but icons with similar colors were placed near each other making it difficult for me to locate what I needed each time! Then I started to think about the whole problem, how I could put system tray icons in a particular order, then even save this order somehow to restore the icons to the exact same positions in case a Windows crash or just an Update caused a problem.

I bring you good news! System tray icons can be arranged any way you like, and this order can be saved, even restored whenever you need to restore it — without the use of any program, free or commercial!

To put tray icons to the order you prefer, just drag any icon and drop it to the left or the right of any other icon. Simple as that! Next time you start Windows you will find your icons in the exact same custom positions you defined! The order of system tray icons is saved at

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify

Just navigate to this key with the Windows Registry Editor (regedit.exe) and export “TrayNotify”. Save the exported registry file to your documents and whenever (if) you need to restore the system tray icons order, run this file to import it to the registry. Then restart Windows or just Explorer to see your order brought back to life.

Of course if you install a new program and some newer icon appears in the tray, move it to the position you prefer, then export again the “TrayNotify” registry key to include this addition to your backup!

Enjoy!