Notification tray icons won't stay hidden

I am using Dell laptop with Windows XP Service Pack 3. As there were several icons in the notification bar in system tray, i went to Properties Customize, nad made all those icons hidden. But dont know why those icons keep appearing every time again in the notification bar. The most annoying part is that though the laptop is always connected wirelessly, still the two network connectors keeps blinking over there.

Is there any manual way for hiding them or any utility ? If yes, please let me know soon. Many thanks.

Which all icons are appearing back though you have hide them? Have you contacted the vendor(s) of the software that is placing these icons in the tray?

Hello Daughtry. Here is what you need to do. Simply right click any blank space on the Taskbar and select Properties. Here under Notification area check mark the box for the option saying "hide inactive icons". Now apply and ok. See if still those icons appear if they are not in use. As far as Network icon is concerned, you can simply disable them permanently or make them show up only when it is connected. For doing the same you need to make the settings under network connection properties itself.

Thank you very much for the helps guys. Here are the icons i have hidden but they keep recurring every time:

• Clock
• Local area connections (I use wireless)
• Volume
• HD protection
• Bluetooth
• Camera
• DVD silencer

Now this is going to be funny. I am facing completely opposite problem than yours. In my case i want to show up some icons but they get hidden automatically after a while. As i am bit tech savvy, i written a small utility myself which tweaks the registry on a periodic basis to deal with the icons as i want but the pointers to the icons are in some bizarre binary format that I can't be bothered to decipher. Hope someone can provide any more information on this.

Thank you.

I think in order to remove the network icons from the 'Notification Area' you'll have to disable the network cards in "Device Manager".

Well if you guys are not able to get the issue fixed manually, i got some utility which may help you to do the same. These are the two best freeware Tray Icon managers. I have used them on my system for years. You guys should give them a try.

1. TrayManager 2.0 (PCMag) 770 kb (Freeware)

2. Tray Wizard 4.03 400 kb (Freeware)