How do I remove unwanted icons from my system tray?
The system tray (officially known as the System Notification Area)
contains icons for running programs, usually programs running in the
background, and usually programs that start automatically when you
boot. I assume that what you really want to do is not just remove the
icon, but stop the programs from starting automatically.
First, note that you should be concerned with *all* programs that
start automatically, not just with those that go into the 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 get
more information about these at
http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html. If you can't find it there,
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.
