I started messing with this once, although I didn't get very far. The ActivePerl PPM package of Win32::GUI doesn't seem to install the same docs that you can find on CPAN, but there are some tutorials included with that particular distribution.

Part 4 of the tutorial covers system tray icons, and the example script there did work for me under 2000. Here's my (very slightly) paraphrased version:

use Win32::GUI;

my $main = Win32::GUI::Window->new(
    -name    =>    'main',
    -text    =>    'test',
    -width    =>    150,
    -height =>    150
);

my $icon = Win32::GUI::Icon->new('test.ico');

my $tray = $main->AddNotifyIcon(
    -name    =>    'tray',
    -icon    =>    $icon,
    -tip    =>    'test'
);

Win32::GUI::Dialog();


sub tray_Click
{
    $main->Enable();
    $main->Show();
    1;
}

sub main_Terminate
{
    -1;
}

sub main_Minimize
{
    $main->Disable();
    $main->Hide();
    1;
}
[download]

Now, if you want to run this as a service, I have no idea how portable it is. Let us know if you get it to work.

-jehuni