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DADDY BOB'S COMPUTER Q & A
August 2, 2009
Q.
How can I hide the icons on the bottom of
the desktop next to the clock?
A.
I am not sure just why you would want to do
this, but apparently Microsoft thought that
someone would since they provided a way to
do it. First a little explanation.
Across
the bottom of the desktop is a bar that
contains icons. The section on the far right
is called the System Tray and this System
Tray is common to all current versions of
Windows including Windows 7. In XP and
Vista, the section on the left, just next to
Start or the Orb is called the Quick Launch
toolbar. Then in the center icons all the
currently open program are displayed in the
taskbar.
In all
versions, it is possible to hide this entire
bar anytime the cursor is moved away from
it. To do this, right click on the taskbar,
choose Properties, and then select Auto hide
the taskbar. Thereafter, whenever the cursor
is moved off the taskbar, it will be hidden,
and the screen enlarges to fill the entire
screen.
When the
cursor is moved to the bottom of the screen,
the taskbar will unhide and become visible
again. Whether or not you choose to auto
hide the taskbar is strictly a user option
and has no real advantage either way.
In XP and
Vista, the quick launch toolbar is turned
off by default and can be turned on be right
clicking on the taskbar, choosing toolbars
and selecting Quick Launch. The quick launch
toolbar is not offered in Windows 7 by
default but with a registry tweak, the quick
launch toolbar or a facsimile of it can be
restored. This will be covered after Window
7 is released.
To hide
the icons on the left of the taskbar, just
choose to not display the quick launch
toolbar. Hiding the icons on the right, in
the system tray, is a little more involved
and requires a registry modification. As
always, the normal warning are in effect
when manually editing the registry since
changing the wrong thing can render Windows
useless.
There are
two registry keys involved. One in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE for all users and in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER for the current user only.
The full key is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Window\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.
The required 32bit Dword sub-key called
NoTrayItemsDisplayed does not exist by
default so will have to be created. Setting
this value to 1 will hide the system tray
while setting it to 0 will unhide it.
As I
usually do, I have created a small file that
will allow you to make these registry
changes safely. This program allows hiding
or un-hiding the system tray icons very
easy. This program is called "HideSystemTrayIcons.exe"
and can be downloaded from the Download
section of this site or by clicking
HERE.
One
further note. Some malware may deliberately
hide these system tray icons to prevent the
user from using programs accessible from
there like an antivirus program. If your
system tray turns up hidden from no action
of your own, this program will unhide it,
and a thorough malware scan is highly
recommended. |
