System Tray Icons

Windows XP gives you control over your System Tray, you can choose which icons to display and which to hide.

The system tray is the small area at one end of the Task Bar (the bar that contains the Start Button) near the clock. It's a handy area where many programs place their icons. Some of these icons are useful, such as the clock, and some are less useful if not completely useless.

Windows XP gives you some control over which icons display, so you can choose to only see the ones you want or feel are useful.

To customize this area, simply right click the Taskbar, and choose Properties. In the Properties window that appears, on the Taskbar tab, check the box next to "Hide Inactive Icons" if it isn't already checked, and then click the "Customize..." button. That will bring up a window that allows you to choose one of three behaviors for each program icon that appears in the system tray.

Click a program and then choose one of the behaviors from the drop down list: "Hide when inactive," "Always hide," or "Always Show."

Click OK and your now Task Bar will be as you want it to be when you restart your computer.