Windows Tip: Hide Icons In The Notification Area
I recently wrote how to use a Registry hack to hide all icons in the Notification Area (Task Tray), and I realized that not everyone knows how to use the Notification Area in the first place!
What
The Windows Notification Area is used to store icons for the programs that are running in the background of your machine. In the past few years, many programs have begun to accumulate in the Notification Area and it can grow to be very large! This tip will show you how to hide some (or all) of these icons.
How To
- Right-click your Taskbar and click Properties
- At the bottom of the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box, tick the Hide inactive icons checkbox and click the Customize button.
- Now, in the Customize Notifications dialog, you will notice a few items:
- Current Items – Programs (and notifications) that are currently running (in the Notification Area)
- Past Times – Items that have appeared in the past
Under Behavior, click and choose what action you’d like for each item (programs & notifications). You have a few options to choose from:
- Hide when inactive
- Always hide
- Always show
- Click OK in all dialogs and changes will be immediate!
I’ve noticed a bug in the Customize Notifications dialog, sometimes when you choose the “Always show” option, it changes to “Hide when inactive” – but it does actually keep the “Always show” behavior. Hopefully this will be one of the many things addressed in Service Pack 3!
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Nice tip, thanks for sharing!
They serve no useful purpose. Let’s keep them hidden at all times.
Yeah, I keep mine hidden as well as I prefer to have the taskbar real estate for the various programs that I have open and for the few things I keep in my quick launch.
[...] Sadeghi shows you how to hide icons in the notification area of [...]
Great tip as usual. I wish I had an enlarged brain like yours.
Awesome tip, Samantha! Thanks a bunch for sharing! I wrote a kinda’ similar guide to Adding custom shortcuts to your Windows Vista taskbar, too, on my novice 2 expert if you’re interested.
Thanks again for the tip!
Steve
“Samantha” -
Thanks bud
-SAMAN
Lol, I think that is the first time I’ve seen someone call you Samantha but every time I read your domain name that is how I read it. Sorry bud!
Actually, I get that all of the time!
How about just “Sam”? How do you pronounce your url anyway…is it saman athon, or samana thon?
What is the idea and reasoning behind it? Always have wondered…
It’s pronounced: Some-on-a-thon. It should rhyme as you say it!
Bobs gave me that nickname a long time ago!
And now we all know the story. You should write a post about it to memorialize it and as a reference for when you get asked again.
It’s actually on my About page!
Nice tip! My taskbar looks better now!
Thanks for the tips. I didn’t know how to do this.
Didnt know about this XP feature. And I was wondering why icons somewhere disapear and somwhere not.
It’s for totally newbies, I think