How to disable the Windows system tray

Filed under: Windows

How to disable the Windows system tray

by Brad Linder Feb 15th 2008

The Windows System tray has been with us for years. And while it's great to have quick access to some of your running programs through a tiny icon, once you've got a dozen or so of those icons running, the system tray can seriously eat into your Windows Taskbar space. Fortunately, Windows XP and Vista can dynamically resize the system tray to hide icons you're not currently using. But if you'd rather get rid of system tray altogether, here are the steps to do it (courtesy of the How-To Geek):

Open the run programs dialog box (either by hitting Win+R or finding the Run icon in the Windows Start Menu)
Type "regedit" to open the Windows Registry Editor
Find this section: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Create a new DWORD Value by right-clicking and selecting new DWORD or clicking Edit, then New, then DWORD
Name your DWORD Value NoTrayItemsDisplay
Set the value to 1

That's it. Next time you log out of Windows or reboot your system tray should be gone. All of your programs will continue to run, but you won't see any icons at the bottom right of your screen.

You can restore your system tray either by changing the value to 0 or by deleting the entry. On some systems, the entry may show up in more than one place so if at first you don't succeed, make sure to search your registry for "NoTrayItemsDisplay" to make sure you've deleted every instance.

Tags: regedit, registry-hack, system-tray, tweak

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Todd said 5:21PM on 2-15-2008

Epic fail. So after that nasty registry hack you are left with two clocks, that don't even display the same time?

Brad Linder said 5:23PM on 2-15-2008

On the off chance that that wasn't a joke, the screenshot is supposed to represent a before and after image. Maybe I should have made that more clear.

Christian said 6:05PM on 2-15-2008

I like learning these simple secrets of cleaning up the desktop.

I for one don't mind it at all as I like to know every detail fo which program is running. I hate finding hidden apps so I even made sure my system tray shows everything it can. I guess I'm a weird person liking to keep watch on things.

Thanks for the great tip nonetheless.

CreepersCreek said 6:15PM on 2-15-2008

If You're running XP, you can just download the TweakUI Powertoy from Microsoft. Once installed, just select the "Taskbar and Start menu" preferences and uncheck "Show taskbar notification icons".

Night Elve said 6:17PM on 2-15-2008

Or you can: Start / Run / Type "msconfig" / Services

And very carefully uncheck all those programs you don't them to start when Windows starts.

Night Elve said 6:18PM on 2-15-2008

Correction:

Start / Run / Type "msconfig" / Startup ***

Night Elve said 6:20PM on 2-15-2008

Geez what's wrong with me.

you don't want them***

muyiwa said 11:21AM on 2-16-2008

Actually u don't really want to do that...because you might end up disabling critical windows startup processes or perhaps processes the pc manufacturer placed in there to tweak the pc (a la volume control...e.t.c)

John Welch said 7:52PM on 2-15-2008

So what you're essentially doing here is being lazy and not clearing applications out, or disabling them on windows startup?

What happens if you minimise applications that have the ability to minimise to tray?

Whilst it may be useful for some people, it definately isn't for me. I have many, many applications installed on my computer, but I manage the ones that are open and I don't let any applications run on startup (bar antivirus and applications like that).

Dave A. said 12:41AM on 2-16-2008

Hear, hear.

I have a number of programs that have the "Minimize to System Tray" feature, too. It reduces Taskbar clutter and makes everything take up a fraction of the visual space.

Plus, you can choose to make certain icons always hidden from view so that your Tray is very small. You don't even need to do risky Registry surgery!

Do this:
Right click on the clock > Properties > Customize...
and you can set icons to always hide, always show, or hide when not used for a while.

zach said 1:33PM on 2-16-2008

Does anyone know how the button bar can reappear?
The problem is that in a sudden neither the properties can help ....
If someone knows any idea from the registry...
I am not wanting to re- install windows ...
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=304611&id=770974854#pid=304611

brian said 1:50PM on 2-16-2008

Are you trying to get back the taskbar? All you have to do is delete the newly created DWORD Value and log off then log back on.

zach said 2:11PM on 2-16-2008

Brian:
the dword there says 0000
do u think that setting to 0001 can work?

Shiba said 10:04AM on 2-17-2008

Hey just wanted to let you know, the part that says "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer" is cut off for me, The only way I was able to read it was to double click the line and copy/paste it. I'm using Firefox v2.0.0.12

I don't think I would use this though, I always set programs to minimize to the tray instead of the taskbar, they take up way less room there. Theres even an app somewhere that allows you to minimize anything to the tray, although I haven't bothered installing it again since my last format.

This could be pretty useful at school/work though. A lot of people are catching on to what those icons actually are, and I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate all the downloading :P

What happens if the program only minimizes to tray and you do this though? You have to find the exe/a shortcut every time you want it to pop back up? If I was using it for the above use I wouldn't really be able to put it anywhere easily accessible.

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