UPDATE: This tutorial will also help you in fixing a weird problem in Windows XP, Vista and 7 when system icons (volume, network and power icons) do not appear in notification area (system tray) until you restart your computer.
Recently an AskVG reader "Marcus Giardino" sent us an email about following problem:
In the NOTIFICATION AREA ICONS list located in the taskbar, there are list of programs that you can hide or show. When you uninstall a program, the icon for that program remains. How do I remove icons for uninstalled programs from this list?
Actually that's true. Windows doesn't remove uninstalled program icon from "Hide Inactive Icons" list automatically and sometimes it becomes annoying.
If you doesn't know about "Hide Inactive Icons" feature, lets provide some details about it.
Have you ever noticed the small arrow present near System Tray icons in Windows Taskbar? Following are 3 screenshots of Windows XP, Vista and 7 Taskbars:
Windows XP:
Windows Vista:
Windows 7:
This arrow is used to hide inactive icons and once you click on the arrow, it shows all icons for a few seconds.
You can enable/disable this feature using Taskbar Properties. You can also customize which icons should be always visible or hidden:
Windows XP "Hide Inactive Icons" Customization Box:
Windows Vista "Hide Inactive Icons" Customization Box:
Windows 7 "Hide Inactive Icons" Customization Box:
As you can see in above 3 screenshots, Windows shows all system tray icons in the list and you can customize them according to your requirements.
In the last screenshot, "oldmcdonald.exe" program has been removed from the system but its icon is still visible in the list.
So today in this tutorial, we are going to share a small registry trick to CLEAR "Hide Inactive Icons" history list which will help in removing those unwanted past items from the customization box.
So here we go:
1. Type regedit in RUN dialog box and press Enter. It'll open Registry Editor.
2. Now goto following key:
For Windows XP:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\TrayNotify
For Windows Vista and 7:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify
3. In right-side pane, you'll see following 2 Binary values:
- IconStreams
- PastIconsStream
Windows XP:
Windows Vista and 7:
4. Delete both of them and log off or restart your system. It'll clear the "Hide Inactive Icons" history and all those unwanted icons from uninstalled programs will be removed from the list.
PS: If you want ready-made registry scripts to do the task automatically, download following ZIP file, extract it and run the extracted REG file. it'll ask for confirmation, accept it:
This article was posted by VG in following section: Troubleshooting, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP.
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Peter Pan
UPDATE: I forgot to end and restart explorer.exe, it works now. (btw, isn't there a way to do this without a restart?)
Sid vicious
To remove Past icons in Win 7:
1. Go to Start/ Run and type regedit to open registry editor.
2. Click on: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify
3. In the right Panel Find PastIconStream & IconStream, Delete them both.
4. Close the registry.
5.Open Task Manager
6.. Scroll down the list of Processes, find explorer.exe
7.. Highlight explorer.exe & choose end task ( you will be presented with a warning-ignore & continue)
8. Underneath the Task manager you will see everything on the Desktop vanish, but do not panic because it will all come back again with the next step.
9..In the task manager that is still open click on the File tab, then click New task (Run) & type explorer then press enter. Your desktop will instantly bounce back again, all neat & tidy too.
Now check your Notification Area & all of the old icon relics from previously uninstalled programs will be gone from the list.
Vinman
Worked like a charm!! running win7 Ultimate
Thanks! Sid vicious
Parag
Didn't worked in Vista..
Rain
I did this, and now my icons do not close, I have a row of them on my toolbar. Please help.
Rain
To be more specific. Unless I hide my icons, versus ask them to be hidden when inactive, the icons hold the entire toolbar open.
It seems that the last icon in the row, the one on the inside, is holding them line open, and removing the open/close arrow.
Dave
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! Sid, you are the man! :)
Paul
Thanks VG, it works but I want to always hide the system tray icon for mediamonkey but unfortunately MM makes the name of the current track the name of the icon, hence the icon reappears in the tray when the track is changed and I get a massive notification history full of MM icons with different names.
I couldn´t find an option in MM to disable it either. Any ideas?
Paul
doh! ran MM without any track playing and hid the system tray icon and now it no longer appears at all which is what I want. I thought i tried that before but obviously not.
cesar
didn't work for me in W7. I have many icons left from uninstalls and after doing what you say (deleting those entries) they are still there.