A few days back I covered a tool called Tray Cleaner that allowed users to remove all past notification area icons, but sadly there was some trouble using it in Windows 7. It did not remove the icons completely. So today I am going to share with you another method that has been tested to work.
This method will require us to edit the registry. Go to Start, type Regedit and hit Enter. This will take you to Registry Editor, now navigate to the following key from the left sidebar:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify
From the main window, delete both IconStreams and PasteIconsStream.
Now hit Ctrl +Alt + Tab to open Task Manager and kill explorer.exe process. Once done, go to File > Run, enter explorer.exe and hit Enter, this will start explorer.exe again.
Now right-click the clock in the system tray and hit Customize notification icons. You will see that all past icons have now been removed.
For those who don’t know what are past notifications? Go here to learn about it. Enjoy!
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17 Comments
Windows7 change this address value in registry not like in WindowsXP Thank you very much ^_^
Windows7 change this address value in registry not like in WindowsXP Thank you very much ^_^
It works just great
Thanks for the tip!
It works just great
Thanks for the tip!
I did it in Windows Vista.
It works!
Thank you!!!
Great many thanks… Worked a treat in Windows 7 Home Premium
Just ran the steps on Win 7 Professional 64-bit to remove an icon that remained after the program was uninstalled. Worked perfectly….thanks!!!
I did it, it works great. But now I can not turn on the Action Center notifications. It just remains off, grayed out. Did I end up deleting it or something?
Excellent hint!!
Works great on Windows 7!
Finally i could get ride of the unused icons that have been removed from my system!
Thanks and great job!!
works tnx
It does the job.
Unfortunately it deletes all icons, so we must have to customize their behaviors again.
It solved my problem, so, thank you so much!
after killing explorer.exe process (windows7 x64)
the start menu disappeared…so i couldnt use the run–explorer.exe
workaround:- using windows task manager — application tab — click new task and type explorer.exe and click OK…
It Works!, Thanks!.
Finally those tiny bothersome icons are gone!
TrayNotify is not listed on my registry.
I found the TrayNotify and did the instructions step by step. When I type explorer on Run the notification list box doesn’t show up. Libraries box shows up instead.
thank you very much man i searched whle day how to doit and now i finally found i wil save this page for future if i forgot
This does NOT allow removal of the UNNECESSARY desktop icon !!
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