This should draw an icon in the Status Bar. It works on my MacBook, but on my iMac it doesn't show an icon. The menulet is there, I can click it: it simply doesn't show the icon.

NSStatusItem issue

- (void)drawRect:(NSRect)rect 
{   
   /* NSImage *img = [NSImage imageNamed:@"basket@2x.png"];
    rect = CGRectInset(rect, 2, 3);
    
    NSRect imageRect;
    imageRect.origin = NSZeroPoint;
    imageRect.size = [img size];

    [img drawInRect:rect fromRect:imageRect operation:NSCompositeSourceOver fraction:1];
    */
    
    NSImage *img = [NSImage imageNamed:@"basket.png"];
    NSStatusItem *statusItem = [[NSStatusBar systemStatusBar] statusItemWithLength:NSVariableStatusItemLength];
    [statusItem setImage:img];
    [statusItem setHighlightMode:YES];
    [statusItem setEnabled:YES];
}

I’m not sure that this will fix the difference, but basically drawRect: is not the place to setup your views. Instead it is the place where a view does it's actual drawing. I suggest you move the uncommented code into an init method and remove the drawRect: method, unless you really need to perform custom drawing code.

I may be wrong, but I seem to remember that you need too keep a reference to the statusItem for it to stay visible... Perhaps stick it into an ivar?