Notification Area Icons refuse to die horror!

I'm trying to simplify the appearance of my desktop and have gone into Start>Control Panel>Appearance and Themes>Task Bar and Start Menu>Notification Area Customize and clicked on all the icons "Always Hide ". For some reason the icons for "Local Area Connection" and "Wireless Network Connection" reappear in the notification area each time I subsequently boot up. On examining the Notification Area Customization Settings these icons have been changed back to "Hide When Inactive ". If I place the cursor over these reappearing icons I get differing message boxes; for the Local Area Network icon I get the message "Local Area Network A network cable is unplugged" and for the Wireless Network Connection icon I get the message "Wireless Network Connection Not connected. Right click here for more options ". Any ideas how I get get these 2 little pesky icons to "Always Hide" and stay hid?!>

 

Go to Control Panel>Network and Internet Connections>Network Connections, right click on each connection and uncheck "Show icon in notification area when connected," click OK. That should remove the icons completely.

If that's not what you want, go to Kelly's Korner, scroll down to line 53 and download "Remove Past Items From Notification Area." Run it according to the instructions at the top of that page.

Although that file is for removing old entries I've used it successfully to jog XP's memory of what is and isn't supposed to be hidden, shown or hidden when not active in the notification area.

 

We'll have to wait to see if that does the trick but I suspect it won't.

From this it would appear that the computer has an network card installed but it's not being used. How do you connect to the internet? Dialup, cable, DSL? Is the computer connected to a LAN (a home network) or not?

 

Thanks for trying to help Miz and Zander.
Tried unchecking the boxes as per Miz's suggestion but those pesky icons persist.
To answer Zander's query I have a dial-up modem. Any bright ideas?

 

The icons appear in the tray because you aren't connected to any network. It's just your network adapters way of telling you that it can't find a network which is normal if you aren't using them to connect to a network of some kind. I'm not sure if there's another way or not but if it were me I'd just disable them in device manager. To do this, right click on my computer>properties>hardware>device manager. Find "network adapters" in the list, click the plus next to it and then double click on the adapter related to the wireless connection. In the window that opens, on the general tab, where it says "device usage ", choose "do not use this device (disable) ". Click OK and then if there happens to be another one that's not related to your dialup connection do the same for it. Reboot and you should be rid of the icons.

One thing to be aware of is that, if you ever were to change to a broadband internet provider or set up a home network, you'd have to enable these again. No big deal as long as you know about it. An added bonus to disabling them is that more than likely you'll find your computer will boot up faster. Network adapters tend to slow the boot process when you're not connected to a network because they try to find one during the boot process and when there is none, they keep trying for a while before giving up (so to speak). Give it a try. No harm can come from it. If you happen to disable one that you need, you can always re-enable it. If you have any questions as to what to disable post back with the names of the various network adapters.

 

mark.reeves--I think Miz got you to the right church, but slightly wrong pew. Uncheck the box below "Show icon in notification area when connected" titled "Notify me when this connection has limited or no connectivity ". Then OK.

 

Problem Solved

Zander you were right on the money; I've disabled "Wireless Network Connection ", "Local Area Connection" and something calling itself "1394 Connection" (what is this?), and left my dial-up enabled. Anyway, those pesky icons have gone and my start-up is noticeably quicker, as predicted. Well done Zander and thanks again; I think Windows BBS is a fantastic resource.

I've now got only one remaining icon in my Notification Area that I can't seem to eradicate - the AVG Control Centre (Grisoft Virus Protection Software). Anyone got any bright ideas about this hardy critter?

 

If you are using AVG Anti-Virus you do not want to illiminate that one.

If it is the same as mine it will turn GRAY if Deffinitions are out of date.

I suggest you leave that one.

HAHAHA !! I just looked and MINE IS GRAY. I keep forgtting that this machine is not set to check for updates at bootup.

This may be a DUMB question but:

Why are users so set against having items in the Systray ? ( or notification area what ever you call it )

If we are indeed talking of the same area those Icons let us know if things that are supposed to loaded actually are. Such as the mentioned AVG Anti-Virus.

BillyBob

 

My AVG icon is now back to the normal 4 color.

BB

 

I also have an Icon for WeatherBug in the Systray. It just ALERTED ME to some ( maybe not so nice ) weather changes in my area.

I also had a notice from MS AntiSpyware a few days.

BillyBob

 

Mark
Glad to hear it did the trick for you. I suspect Jim's suggestion would work to but as long as the connections aren't being used they might just as well be disabled. Thanks for letting us know.

That's a connection that uses your firewire port to connect to another computer. You can enable it if you want. Enabling it won't cause the computer to boot slower and it won't make any icons appear in your system tray. On the other hand, if you aren't using it......

Description of 1394 Connection in Windows XP

 

I see some pros and cons about the Icons in the Systray.

In mark.reeves's case he may not have known that he had some stuff running that was not needed. Or if there was a problem with something. He then got rid of the un-needed stuff. That is fine.

They help him to get rid of something that either had a problem and/or was not needed

But wanting to get rid of things like the AVG icon may not be a good idea. As I mentioned before it notifies me when my deffinitions are out of date. It also notifies me if there is a suspected problem.

I myself also have a couple there that notify me if something ( or someone ) is trying to make changes to my system.

MS AntiSpyware is another one that I would not dream of taking out. Like AVG. it also lets me know the that the program is loaded properly and notifies of updates.

I was messing around with Startup items the other day and when I got done I was missing the Icon for AntiSpyware. Which in turn told me that it was not loaded. That got fixed in a hurry.

I also have another icon to a SSwitch with which I can control the screensaver right from the Systray. But that one is one of MY Choice it is not really system realated. But I sure would miss it if it were not there.

My Bottom line is that I have no problem with controlling the number of items in the systray. But I DO HAVE a problem when I see someone say that they do not want ANY there.

In other words. Control them but use a bit of discrection when doing it.

I know this is a repeat

Yes. I have an idea. I would do some SERIOUS thinking before I got rid of that one.

BillyBob