Many software companies design their programs so that they run a tray program in the System Tray (the area near the clock in the bottom, right-hand corner of Windows XP) to increase accessibility to (and visibility of) their products. Although programs with tray icons can offer a convenient way to access and control programs, many of these System Tray icons may not be used frequently and they may needlessly take up space in the System Tray.
The Windows XP System Tray has an option that lets inactive icons be hidden. However, the constantly changing icons in the System Tray can become annoying.
Users can configure which icons the System Tray displays.
The System Tray icon display can be customized to a certain degree by following the following steps:
Right-click the Taskbar
Select Properties from the menu
Select the "Hide inactive icons" check box
Click Customize. This will present a dialog box that includes the icons currently in the System Tray as well icons that installed applications placed there.
For each icon in the System Tray, select one of three states:
"Hide when inactive"
"Always hide"
"Always show"
Select "Always Show" to configure the icons desired to be available in the System Tray.
Select "Always hide" for icons that are not desired to appear automatically.
The System Tray will still display the clickable arrow that displays all of the icons installed on the computer.
Whenever a new application that adds a System Tray icon is installed these steps must be repeated to reconfigure the System Tray.
