The notification area, also known as the system tray, is the area of the Windows taskbar that displays the current time and date, as well as program icons, active windows, and app notifications. Customizing or disabling icons in the notification area can be done in several ways.
The first way to customize or disable icons in the notification area is to right click a blank area of the taskbar and then click “Taskbar Settings”. From there, you can choose which icons are shown in the notification area. This is done by selecting “Select which icons appear on the taskbar”. You can then toggle on or off whatever applications you would like to be displayed in the notification area. Additionally, you can access this option from the Control Panel. In the search bar, type “notification area”. Select “Select which icons appear on the taskbar” in the search results. You will then be able to toggle icons on or off from here.
Another way to customize or disable icons in the notification area is to use the Registry Editor. In order to do this, press the Windows key + R to open the run dialog box and type “regedit”. This will open the Registry Editor. From here, navigate to the following folder:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\TrayNotify
Right click the TrayNotify folder and select “New”, then select “DWORD (32-bit) Value”. Name the DWORD “IconStreams”. Now, select “Modify” from the menu. Change the value data from 0 to 1 and click “OK”. This will allow you to control which icons appear in the notification area.
The final way to customize or disable icons in the notification area is to use a third-party application. There are many applications available that allow you to easily customize or disable icons in the notification area. For example, Tray Icon Manager allows you to quickly manage which icons appear in the notification area.
These are just a few ways to customize or disable icons in the notification area. As you can see, there are several methods to achieve this goal. Whether you use the Taskbar Settings, the Registry Editor, or a third-party application, you can easily customize or disable icons in the notification area.