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The area at the far-right side of the Windows taskbar traditionally is called the system tray, but it's also been referred to as the task tray or simply the tray. With the release of Windows Vista, it's going by the name Notification area.
Putting clutter on notice
The Notification area contains a bunch of icons representing programs running on your system right now. You can click the Show Hidden Icons button (to the left of the icons in the Notification area) and expand the Notification area so that you can see all the icons it contains.
 | If you don't want Windows to hide icons in the Notification area, right-click a blank area of the taskbar and choose Properties from the context menu. On the Notification Area tab of the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box, clear the Hide Inactive Icons check box. |
You can help unclutter your system if you examine the icons in the Notification area and remove those you don't use regularly. Because each icon represents a currently running program, removing the icon represents shutting down the program and therefore freeing the resources that program was using.
If you want to close one of the programs, try right-clicking its icon. You see a context menu, and a Close or Exit option may be on the menu. Select the Exit option, and the icon should disappear from the Notification area.
To prevent the associated program from reappearing the next time you start Windows, configure things so the program doesn't automatically run. You can do this in two ways.
The first approach is to run the piece of software in question and try to make the change there. Somewhere in all the software configuration information, a control should appear that determines whether the program displays the Notification area icon. The wording used in the control could be just about anything — it could reference the system tray, the tray, the task tray, or the notification area. It could also reference automatically starting when you start Windows.
When you find the configuration setting, change it and then restart Windows. If the change worked, the icon should no longer be visible in the Notification area.
Try the second approach if the change didn't work:
1. Right-click the Start button and choose Open from the context menu.
Windows displays the Start Menu folder window.
2. Double-click the Programs folder.
The Programs folder contains many of the items visible when you click All Programs on the Start menu.
3. Double-click the Startup folder.
The Startup folder contains shortcuts to some of the programs that run automatically when you start Windows. Among these shortcuts may be one for the pesky program that appears in the Notification area.
4. Delete the shortcut for the program you don't want to automatically run.
Deleting the shortcut means that the associated program won't run when you next start Windows.
5. Close the Startup folder window.
6. Repeat Steps 1 through 5 — except this time choose Open All Users in Step 1.
7. When you're done, restart Windows to determine if your actions fixed the problem.
What's really running?
Not all currently running programs have icons in the Notification area. Some have tasks on the taskbar, and others may not show any outward icon at all. (Windows can run many programs at the same time.)
If you want to see everything running in your system, right-click a blank area on the taskbar and choose Task Manager from the context menu. In the Task Manager dialog box, examine the Processes tab to see all the programs running right now.
When you see what's running, take a look at the column labeled Mem Usage. This column indicates how much memory is allocated to each item. Cluttered systems have many processes running, even if they aren't being used. If something is running, it's using resources that may best be used for something you really need.
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