Removing icons from taskbar? 3

[nelljack]

I have searched in the helps for a way to remove icons in the taskbar (?) (the area by the clock) and all I find is how to add them. I want to take some out that are using a lot of memory and I also do not use. I guess when the updates were installed they were put in.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[smah]

Removing icons from the system tray is done by each program that put an icon there. There may be a setting to remove the icon or you may have to live with it, or you could uninstall the program that put it there. To find out what they are, you can usually right click and select About or just hold the mouse pointer over the icon for a few seconds.

How do you know they are using a lot of memory? What are the names of the ones you don't use - many are from something that you installed, not the operating system. The only ones that would be from XP are: volume control, MSN Messanger, the clock, and possibly a network connection icon and possibly a safely remove hardware icon.

 

[linney]

Taskbar notification area overview (Help and Support).


The notification area of the taskbar is where you usually see the current time displayed. This area can become crowded with notification icons that appear when certain events occur, such as when you receive e-mail or when you open Task Manager. Windows displays a notification icon when an event occurs. After a short time, Windows puts the icon in the background to simplify that area.

You can access the icons that have been placed in the background by clicking a button in the notification area.

In addition, you can customize the behavior of notification icons on the Taskbar tab of the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box.

To open the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box, right-click an empty area on the taskbar, and then click Properties.

For more information, click Related Topics (Help and Support).


283084 - How to Clear Past Items from the Notification Area

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;283084&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

279771 - Description of Notification Area Settings

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;279771&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

321213 - Icons in the Notification Area May Disappear If You Use High-Contrast Color Themes

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;321213&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

As you are aware many programs have property pages (often obtained via a right click on an icon) that allows removal of the icon from Taskbar Notification Area.

 

[nelljack]

The icons that were put on were Instant Messenger and Real Player. I use neither. Real Player uses up to 4MB of memory, of which I could better use elsewhere.

These were in the updates from MS. I did not install them myself, they came in the automatic updates.

I will continue to look for how to get RID of these icons, I don't even want them to run in the background. But thanks for all of your helps. Kudos to you both.

 

[Marcs41]

I would start wondering what a load of *** is installed and running to have such an overcrowded systray.
Like smah said in a way, it's not the icons eating your performance, it's what (or who...) put them there.
Uninstall what you don't need. The solution is out there.

 

[smah]

You should be able to uninstall RealPlayer from Add/Remove programs.

I assume that the Instant Messenger we're talking about is MSN (or Windows) Messenger, not AIM, ICQ or something.

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_reg_edits.htm.

Scroll down to 'Disable Auto-Run of Windows Messenger'

 

[Marcs41]

nelljack, just for info, realplayer is not a MS update ! The solution is out there.

 

[nelljack]

The link

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_reg_edits.htm

does not allow you to click on the subject to read.

As was said above I'll just have to live with it (MSN Instant messenger). I disable it right now so I guess I'll be doing that for the rest of the life of this PC. Future PCs will have Linux.

If I uninstall MSN Instant messenger it won't affect my email OE will it?

 

[nelljack]

FYI, Real Player came with one of the updates I got.

 

[smah]

nelljack,

First, the link has no subject to read. When you click on 'Disable Auto-Run of Windows Messenger' the registry edit is displayed that will do exactly what it says.

Second, as mars41 said, Real Player did not come from MS. You may have updated some other software, or been required to get it to view some video on the internet, but it is actually a direct competitor to Microsoft's Media Player.

 

[smah]

Oops - sorry about the spelling marcs41

 

[Marcs41]

that's ok mash ;-) The solution is out there.

 

[nelljack]

Ok guys. Thanks for the info. I uninstalled Real Player. I can live with Instant messenger.

No more input is needed for me. Kudos to the others.

 

[nous]

The only thing needed to be checked in WinXP is the antivirus program. For info on any programs found in MSCONFIG check out

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk,

this page has a HUGE listing of programs for startup apps.

peace
nous

 

[OriginUnknown]

You could try going to these registry keys and deleting the values for ms messenger, that should stop it starting up in the first place.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

 

[Marcs41]

If you need to do some covert activities, or you're just sick of looking at a cluttered system tray, you can hide all of your tray icons with a simple reg hack. With just a few clicks you'll make it look like there are no background applications running.

1) Run regedit and find the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/Explorer

2) Find (or add) a REG_DWORD entry called "NoTrayItemsDisplay".
Open it and assign the Hex value of 1 to hide the Icons, 0 for default (show the icons).

3) After you reboot, there should be no trace of those icons. If necessary, you can use the Windows Task Manager to fiddle with the background applications The solution is out there.