Cannot remove some Systems Tray icons

[Ben Stevenson]

There are some icons in the Systems Tray that are of not much use, but am
unable to remove them. I do not see them in Startup. There are two such
Icons :
1. "Local area connection - a network cable is unplugged."
I am not on any network. this is a stand-alone computer.
2. "Safely remove hardware."
TIA

 

[John Barnett MVP]

You should be able to remove the local area connection via the bios. you
won't be able to do from within xp. Enter the bios and disable the LAN
feature from there.
As for the safely remove hardware icon you obviously have a piece of
removable hardware that requires this icon. So you need tor emove the
hardware to remove the icon. Alternatively right click on the task bar and
select Properties. When the star menu and taskbar properties box opens,
right at the bottom you will see an option marked 'hide inactive icons'
place a check mark in this box. This will enable the Customize button on the
right. Click the Customize button and then scroll down until you fins the
remove hardware option. Click on the option and then click on the green
arrow on the right. Set the option to 'Always Hide'. The icon will still be
there, but will be hidden from view.

 

[Vanguardx]

There are some icons in the Systems Tray that are of not much use,
but am unable to remove them. I do not see them in Startup. There are
two such Icons :
1. "Local area connection - a network cable is unplugged."
I am not on any network. this is a stand-alone computer.

My first thought is that you have the option enabled in the LAN
connectoid to show network status. That displays a double-monitor tray
icon which blinks the in or out monitor depending on the direction of
traffic flow. However, if you ever disable the LAN connectoid then that
tray icon disappear until you reenable the LAN connectoid. Since
disabling the LAN connectoid makes its tray icon disappear, if that
option were enabled, then you could not see "network cable is unplugged"
because that tray icon wouldn't be there anymore. So I suspect you have
a firewall that is reporting that status using its tray icon.

2. "Safely remove hardware."

I think this is the USB controller icon. You have something USB plugged
in. This lets you click on that USB controller icon so you can
disconnect the USB device before physically unplugging it. Some devices
don't work well if you simply yank them out of the USB port before you
logically disconnect them. Look at your USB devices. I have a memory
stick (acts like a drive). It has an option to disconnect without me
having to do it manually (i.e., I can just yank the USB stick). I think
USB hard drives have the option to disconnect automatically (which means
you cannot have its cache enabled since it wouldn't get flushed - since
there is no way to physically bar you from unplugging the USB cable
before the device would detect that action and flush its cache before
letting you physically yank the USB cable). Double-click the USB tray
icon to see what USB devices it is monitoring.

 

[Ben Stevenson]

Double-click the USB tray icon to see what USB devices it is monitoring.

It is the Motorola Cable Modem. Thats my internet connection.

 

[Vanguardx]

It is the Motorola Cable Modem. Thats my internet connection.

If you don't want to see it then hide it. Right-click on the Taskbar,
select Properties, and use the Customize button to select Always Hide
for that tray icon. I don't know if the properties for the device in
Device Manager has an option to hide that icon (by setting some behavior
that will make the USB controller ignore the status of the USB-connected
device).

 

[Ben Stevenson]

If I can't get rid of them, then I'll go ahead and hide them. My original
intention was to get rid of them from the Systems Tray so that they do not
get loaded up during startup and start to waste resourses.