Question: I've searched for an answer to this one and I haven't found one yet. How do i remove a single item from Windows' System tray? I'm targeting Windows XP.

**Edit:** This is not about preventing items from starting up. I *want* the program to keep running, I just need another script/program to remove the first one's entry from system tray.

**Second Edit:** One approach that I can think of is to try to hide the intended app by modifying registry keys. On several test machines I've found some registry entries that match the System tray information at

```
HKEY_USERS\something-that-looks-like S-1-5-21-682003330-1563985344-725345543-1003\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\TrayNotify

```

with `BalloonTip, IconStream` and `PastIconsStream` containing systray information. The important one is `IconStream`.

On other machines, these are found at

```
hkey_classes_root/local/setting/software/microsoft/windows/currentversion/TrayNotify
```

I'm quite sure there's no danger in changing those specific registries, but I don't know how to write code for that. Can anyone help me with the code and with confirming if this has the desired effect of hiding the systray icon for an active program?

Answer: 
From a similar [question](https://superuser.com/questions/105922/remove-the-microsoft-security-essentials-icon) on SU.

[PS Tray Factory](http://www.pssoftlab.com/pstf_info.phtml) may be of some use:

> 
> PS Tray Factory is a powerful and
>  handy tool meant to flexibly control
>  ALL the other icons in the system tray
>  of the taskbar. PS Tray Factory will
>  help you to manage all the
>  applications that place their icons in
>  the taskbar tray. When you have
>  installed PS Tray Factory, you will
>  forget about the problem of lack of
>  space in the system tray, and will
>  also get an easy, fast and handy tool
>  to handle those applications. In
>  short, ALL Windows users will get this
>  handy and powerful tool at their
>  disposal, whereas only Windows XP
>  users have an idea of it. For the
>  latter, we have made a nice surprise,
>  as the features of PS Tray Factory
>  exceed the standard built-in ones of
>  this OS. With PS Tray Factory you can
>  quickly hide system tray icons and
>  easy manage them.
> 
> 
>
Right-click on Start button >> Properties >> Taskbar tab >> Customize.

Select the Tray icon you don't like. Under Behavior set to "Always hide".

Repeat as needed.

The icons will still be visible if you expand the Tray but hidden for 99% of your usage.