Inactive icons in taskbar

[Kevin Yuan]

hi,

There are lots of inactive icons in taskbar, even the software is no more
existed(uninstalled),
its icon is still there,
is there a way to remove the unneeded?

Kevin

 

[Alias]

hi,

There are lots of inactive icons in taskbar, even the software is no
more existed(uninstalled),
its icon is still there,
is there a way to remove the unneeded?

Kevin

Right click/Delete.

Alias

 

[Jose]

hi,

There are lots of inactive icons in taskbar, even the software is no more
existed(uninstalled),
its icon is still there,
is there a way to remove the unneeded?

Kevin

If it is in the Quick Launch area to the right of the Start button,
right click the offending icon and delete it.

 

[Kevin Yuan]

No, thanks, but I mean the icons that appear at the bottom right corner,
next to the system time.

 

[Alias]

No, thanks, but I mean the icons that appear at the bottom right corner,
next to the system time.

Ctrl+R. Type in MSCONFIG and hit Enter. Look under the start up tab and
see what's there and if anything there is also next to your clock. If
so, untick them and you will be asked to reboot after hitting Apply and
closing MSCONFIG. Reboot. They should now be gone.

That said, what are the names of the icons in question?

Alias

 

[Jose]

No, thanks, but I mean the icons that appear at the bottom right corner,
next to the system time.

That area is called the Notification area.

If you right click the Taskbar, Properties, Customize in the
Notification Area.

Each "Item" has a behavior. Click the item and select the behavior
you want. Maybe Always hide is good for you. You can click the <
character to the left of the clock to see/choose the hidden items.

This does not remove the program and neither does deleting the icon
from the Quick Launch area remove the program.
When removing a program, you should try to use the Windows Add/Remove
programs feature, or the people that made the program may have their
own uninstall procedure.

If you think the programs have been removed and you still see the
stuff in the Notification area, you have another problem since they
should not be running if they were removed properly. You might be
able to just always hide them and live with it, that is up to you.

The Msconfig Startup tab is a good place to stop program(s) from
launching when Windows restarts, and will probably remove the icon
from the Notification area, but the program will still be installed
until you remove it. Be careful with that so you don't stop something
you need.

 

[Mark]

hi,

There are lots of inactive icons in taskbar, even the software is no more
existed(uninstalled),
its icon is still there,
is there a way to remove the unneeded?

If system tray/notification area icons still appear after the apps have been
uninstalled, then that seems to be a good indication that the uninstall did
not properly remove everything that was previously installed.

There are a few areas that can be checked to see what items are being loaded
at boot, such as (but not limited to):
Programs > Startup
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

 

[Kevin Yuan]

That area is called the Notification area.

If you right click the Taskbar, Properties, Customize in the
Notification Area.

Each "Item" has a behavior. Click the item and select the behavior
you want. Maybe Always hide is good for you. You can click the <
character to the left of the clock to see/choose the hidden items.

This does not remove the program and neither does deleting the icon
from the Quick Launch area remove the program.
When removing a program, you should try to use the Windows Add/Remove
programs feature, or the people that made the program may have their
own uninstall procedure.

If you think the programs have been removed and you still see the
stuff in the Notification area, you have another problem since they
should not be running if they were removed properly. You might be
able to just always hide them and live with it, that is up to you.

The Msconfig Startup tab is a good place to stop program(s) from
launching when Windows restarts, and will probably remove the icon
from the Notification area, but the program will still be installed
until you remove it. Be careful with that so you don't stop something
you need.

Sorry to have caused some confusions, I mean the items in "Customize
Notifications" dialog are still shown in the list even if i have removed the
program properly from Add/Remove Program in Control Panel. I want to remove
the icons from this "Customize Notifications" dialog. Of course it's not the
icon shown in notification area.

Say, I got a program A, when it's running, A shows an icon in notification
area.
I uninstall program A by its installer or Control Panel
now nothing will show in notification area, because it's no more running
but there is still a place to see the icon, that's in "Customize
Notifications" dialog,
I want to remove it from there, can I?

 

[Jose]

Sorry to have caused some confusions, I mean the items in "Customize
Notifications" dialog are still shown in the list even if i have removed the
program properly from Add/Remove Program in Control Panel. I want to remove
the icons from this "Customize Notifications" dialog. Of course it's not the
icon shown in notification area.

Say, I got a program A, when it's running, A shows an icon in notification
area.
I uninstall program A by its installer or Control Panel
now nothing will show in notification area, because it's no more running
but there is still a place to see the icon, that's in "Customize
Notifications" dialog,
I want to remove it from there, can I?

We are getting closer...

There are two sections in those Properties. Current and Past (Past =
probably uninstalled).

Follow this link http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];283084

Follow the instructions to fix it yourself.

There is a little registry editing so if you don't feel comfortable
with that, get some help from someone who is comfortable with it.

Don't forget to include the Task Manager End and Restart process for
explorer, or you could reboot (but why).

How does that look to you when you get done?

 

[PaulM]

Go here , line 15, download and run the script.


http://www.paulsxp.com/tweaksxp.html

--
Paul's XP and Vista Tweaks
---------------------------------------
www.paulsxp.com

Paul's XP and Vista Help Forum

 

[Brian A.]

Sorry to have caused some confusions, I mean the items in "Customize
Notifications" dialog are still shown in the list even if i have removed
the program properly from Add/Remove Program in Control Panel. I want to
remove the icons from this "Customize Notifications" dialog. Of course
it's not the icon shown in notification area.

Say, I got a program A, when it's running, A shows an icon in notification
area.
I uninstall program A by its installer or Control Panel
now nothing will show in notification area, because it's no more running
but there is still a place to see the icon, that's in "Customize
Notifications" dialog,
I want to remove it from there, can I?

Click Start > Run, type in: regedit and press Enter or click Ok.
Expand to:
hkey_current_user\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\explorer\traynotify
Click on TrayNotify in the Left pane to select if not already selected.
Select both "IconStreams" and "PastIconStreams" under the Name column in the
Right pane.
Right click on the highlighted area of the selected entries.
Click Delete in the popup list.
Close regedit.

Press ctrl+alt+del.
Click the Processes tab.
Scroll to Explorer.exe, Right click on it and click End Process in the popup
list.
On the Menu bar click File > New Task.
Type explorer in the input text box and click Ok.

You should now have a cleaned up tray list.


--

Brian A. Sesko
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[Jose]

Sorry to have caused some confusions, I mean the items in "Customize
Notifications" dialog are still shown in the list even if i have removed the
program properly from Add/Remove Program in Control Panel. I want to remove
the icons from this "Customize Notifications" dialog. Of course it's not the
icon shown in notification area.

Say, I got a program A, when it's running, A shows an icon in notification
area.
I uninstall program A by its installer or Control Panel
now nothing will show in notification area, because it's no more running
but there is still a place to see the icon, that's in "Customize
Notifications" dialog,
I want to remove it from there, can I?

Oh yeah... I think you may have to go back and reset the behavior of
your Current items after following the directions from that link.

But at least now, you are an experienced expert.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

No, thanks, but I mean the icons that appear at the bottom right corner,
next to the system time.

OK, but please don't simply call it the "Task Bar," since that will
confuse many of us. The area you are talking about is officially
called the System Notification area, and informally, the System Tray.

First, note that you should be concerned with *all* programs that
start automatically, not just with those that go into the system tray.
Not all autostarting programs manifest themselves by an icon in the
tray.

On each program you don't want to start automatically, check its
Options to see if it has the choice not to start (make sure you
actually choose the option not to run it, not just a "don't show icon"
option). Many can easily and best be stopped that way. If that doesn't
work, run MSCONFIG from the Start | Run line, and on the Startup tab,
uncheck the programs you don't want to start automatically.

However, if I were you, I wouldn't do this just for the purpose of
running the minimum number of programs. Despite what many people tell
you, you should be concerned, not with how *many* of these programs
you run, but *which*. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but
others have no effect on performance.

Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you should do
is determine what each program is, what its value is to you, and what
the cost in performance is of its running all the time. You can try
google searches and ask about specifics here.

Once you have that information, you can make an intelligent informed
decision about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.

 

[Jose]

[...]

 Click Start > Run, type in:  regedit and press Enter or click Ok.
Expand to:
hkey_current_user\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\explorer\traynotify
Click on TrayNotify in the Left pane to select if not already selected.
Select both "IconStreams" and "PastIconStreams" under the Name column inthe
Right pane.
Right click on the highlighted area of the selected entries.
Click Delete in the popup list.
Close regedit.

 Press ctrl+alt+del.
Click the Processes tab.
Scroll to Explorer.exe, Right click on it and click End Process in the popup
list.
On the Menu bar click File > New Task.
Type explorer in the input text box and click Ok.

 You should now have a cleaned up tray list.

Many thanks even though I did not ask the question.

Yeah - this evolved over time as more information came in - zeroing in
on the real issue which turned out to be a little different that what
what the original post leads one to believe.

Oh well, he should be happy now with a solution and other good
information.

 

[Al Falfa]

Yeah - this evolved over time as more information came in - zeroing in
on the real issue which turned out to be a little different that what
what the original post leads one to believe.

All the clues were in the original article. This problem has been around
for years.