If you want a clean looking taskbar, then here is how you can hide the icons in the notification area.
Follow the steps below to hide the icons:
- Open Notepad.
- Copy and paste the following into the new text document:
- Save the document as hide.reg.
- Double-click the new file to merge it into the Registry.
- Confirm UAC prompt.
- Reboot your computer.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer] “NoTrayItemsDisplay”=dword:00000001
The Notification icons will be hidden.
To unhide the icons do this:
- Open Notepad.
- Copy and paste the following into the new text document:
- Save the document as unhide.reg.
- Double-click the new file to merge it into the Registry.
- Confirm UAC prompt.
- Reboot your computer..
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer] “NoTrayItemsDisplay”=dword:00000000
Another way to do it is:
- Press the Windows Key and “R”.
- Type regedit and hit enter. Click Yes for the UAC prompt.
- Navigate to the following registry key:
- In the right side, create a new 32-bit DWORD value and then change the value data to 1.
- Now, to show it again, change the value data to 0.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
This will hide the notification area.
To see the change log off and Log on.
This tweak works with Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP.