If you don’t really use the icons in the Notification Area and are looking to have a clean looking taskbar, then a simple registry script will do this with ease.
1. Open Notepad.
2. Copy and paste the following into the new text document:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoTrayItemsDisplay"=dword:00000001
3. Save the document as hide_notificationarea.reg.
4. Double-click the new file to merge it into the Registry.
5. Continue through the UAC prompt and confirm that you wish to perform the action.
6. Reboot your computer.
The Notification icons will all be hidden.
So it went from this:
to this:
If you want to unhide the icons at some point later in time:
1. Open Notepad.
2. Copy and paste the following into the new text document:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoTrayItemsDisplay"=dword:00000000
3. Save the document as unhide_notificationarea.reg.
4. Double-click the new file to merge it into the Registry.
5. Continue through the UAC prompt and confirm that you wish to perform the action.
6. Reboot your computer..
