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.

taskbar

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!

hide inactive icons

Go ahead and click the Customize button to bring up the Customize Notifications dialog box:

customize notifications

Now you can scroll through the list of programs and choose from three options: Hide when inactive, Always show, or Always hide.

always hiude

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!

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3 Responses to “How to hide system tray icons in Windows XP”

  1. Haris said on : December 28th, 2007 at 1:23 pm

    Nice tip, but I use tray icons a lot. :)


  2. akishore said on : December 28th, 2007 at 4:34 pm

    Hi Haris, could you post a link to this program? I tried a search, but get all kinds of stuff! Is it free? Thanks!


  3. Guglielmo Cancelli said on : March 19th, 2008 at 6:06 am

    Godo molto fare utilizzare questa trucco. Diverta si a fare piccolo scherzi a propri amici: il vostri amici rider


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