How to hide system tray icons in Windows XP
Posted on December 28, 2007 at 6:40 am
I usually write about computer tips that help me, such as today when I wanted to hide some of the icons in my system tray on Windows XP. After a point, my system tray starts to cross the halfway mark on my screen and that’s a problem! Because I write this blog, I usually install lots of software so that I can test it before writing about it, but it also means my system tray is a disaster.
So here’s a simple, yet useful tutorial on how you can hide icons on your system tray without the need for any additional software.
First, right-click on the Taskbar and choose Properties.
On the Taskbar tab at the bottom, you’ll see an option to Hide inactive icons. Well, if you want anything to be hidden, you first need to make sure that the checkbox for that option is checked!
Go ahead and click the Customize button to bring up the Customize Notifications dialog box:
Now you can scroll through the list of programs and choose from three options: Hide when inactive, Always show, or Always hide.
Go ahead and choose Always hide for anything that you don’t care to see at all and choose Hide when inactive for items that you only want to appear when an action is being performed. For example, the new mail icon for Outlook can be set to Hide when inactive, which means it will only appear when you get a new email in your Outlook Inbox.
And that’s it! A quick and easy way to manage your system tray and keep it under control. Enjoy!
[tags]hide system tray icon, hide system tray icons, hide icon in system tray, how to hide system tray icons, hide icons from system tray, remove system tray icon[/tags]
» Filed Under Computer Tips
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Nice tip, but I use tray icons a lot.
Hi Haris, could you post a link to this program? I tried a search, but get all kinds of stuff! Is it free? Thanks!
Godo molto fare utilizzare questa trucco. Diverta si a fare piccolo scherzi a propri amici: il vostri amici rider
Hey, this also works in Vista! Thanks!
Hi.. Works in windows XP. But after I set Always Hide to some of the icons, it reverted to original setting when I restart windows.
Although this works as described, unfortunately you will get that little arrow that indicates to the user that there are icons hidden. And a pop up will tell you that you have hidden icons, just in case you didn’t notice the arrow. And the icon(s) you hid, will still be visible and available to the user. This is all right for home users but not appropriate in a corporate environment or if you really want the icon to be gone off the system tray for good. Just FYI.
As somebody mentioned above, some icons that are set to “Always Hide” or “Always Show” revert to “Hide When Inactive” after a reboot. I read on one forum that certain “vital system procedures” would always be visible no matter how you set them. Well I don’t consider things like my ATI video display settings to be a “vital system procedure”. I’ve set the icon to Always Hide a hundred times but after every reboot, there it is in my tray! If anyone knows how to fix this bug can they let us know? (For reference, I found the registry setting… but the binary code means nothing without knowing which icon is represented)
Explanation was very nice and presented in such a manner that even someone like me can understand. Thanks
This is a temporary fix valid only for the current windows session. The icons revert to being shown again every time you log off and log back on. So, in short, this DOES NOT WORK. Please give us a solution to the original question,
“How to hide system tray icons in Windows XP”.
The solution provided here only answers the following question:
“How to TEMPORARILY hide system tray icons in Windows XP”.
I have a system tray icon for a programe and i want to always hide it and i do that from properties and choose always hide, but after each reboot it reappear again what can i do plz ???
Apparently no one here can answer this, so it’s time to
move on to a site that can….
The original question “How to hide system tray icons in Windows XP” has not been answered.
The question “How to TEMPORARILY hide system tray icons in Windows XP” has.
I appreciate the time and effort of others in their explanations and answers, but am a bit disappointed in not addressing the original question.
this will only hide the icon..if we click the arrow all the hidden icons will appear.how can we remove the icon from the tray?
Apparently no one here can answer this, so it’s time to
move on to a site that can….
yep it hides them beneath the arrow…….. i want to get the icon out of the tray altother…… it amuses me that there seems to be no way to do this except to download some sort of program
but i am the one who uses window, so i can only blame myself.
mayb i should try linux….
Please give us a solution to the original question,
“How to HIDE system tray icons in Windows XP”.
The solution provided here only answers the following question:
“How to TEMPORARILY hide system tray icons in Windows XP”.
Here is the answer to your question. Go to the registry editor and create the following dword key under the path given. This will hide all tray icons for the current user. Hope this helps.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
“NoTrayItemsDisplay”=dword:00000001
I’ve got the opposite issue. I’d like to leave the Everest temp readouts for both of my hard drives showing at all times, but it wants to reset one of them to “Hide when Inactive” constantly.
Any ideas?
This is perfect to hide icons in the system tray.
Now, I’m looking for a way to hide a program icon on the task bar. For instance: Winamp has an option to not show it on the task bar, but Windows Media Player hasn’t. How can I hide WMP’s icon?