Too many icons on taskbar!

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (More info?)

The bottom right hand corner of my desktop in WinXP-SP2 reflects the active
programs, correct?

How do I either delete or stop from showing so many icons? I have tried
always hide and hide when inactive, but they keep appearing! Please help!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (More info?)

"Steve C" <SteveC@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1F06721F-018B-4E2A-A208-F5D672CEB129@microsoft.com...
> The bottom right hand corner of my desktop in WinXP-SP2 reflects the
active
> programs, correct?

Not necessarily. Just the ones that have decided they want an icon down
there. Or the ones that you have decided need an icon down there.
>
> How do I either delete or stop from showing so many icons? I have tried
> always hide and hide when inactive, but they keep appearing! Please help!

Right click the offending icon and choose Exit. If it has a Properties menu
item choose that and see if you can disable it from appearing on the Task
Bar. Check which applications are starting on bootup. Give the axe to any
you don't want or don't need to have starting at a bootup.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (More info?)

go to msconfig ,there u can find the services/apps that are made available to
run at start up.If u uncheck there the application/service will not start
after every login

"Steve C" wrote:

> The bottom right hand corner of my desktop in WinXP-SP2 reflects the active
> programs, correct?
>
> How do I either delete or stop from showing so many icons? I have tried
> always hide and hide when inactive, but they keep appearing! Please help!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (More info?)

In news:1F06721F-018B-4E2A-A208-F5D672CEB129@microsoft.com,
Steve C <SteveC@discussions.microsoft.com> typed:

> The bottom right hand corner of my desktop


That area is called the Notification Area, or informally, the
System Tray.


> in WinXP-SP2 reflects the
> active programs, correct?


No. First of all, it's generally only background programs that
show there. If you start Word or Excel, for example, it doesn't
show there.

Second, not all background programs necessarily show there. Some
don't show anywhere. It's up to the writer of the program.


> How do I either delete or stop from showing so many icons? I
> have
> tried always hide and hide when inactive, but they keep
> appearing!
> Please help!


Do you want not to see the icon or do you not want to run the
program at all? You should be concerned about which background
programs you're running. Some of these may be hurting your
performance and may not have to be running.
On each program you don't want to start automatically, check its
Options to see if it has the choice not to start. Many can easily
and best be stopped that way. If that doesn't work, run MSCONFIG
from the Start | Run line, and on the Startup tab, uncheck the
programs you don't want to start automatically.

However, if I were you, I wouldn't do this just for the purpose
of running the minimum number of programs. Despite what many
people tell you, you should be concerned, not with how many of
these programs you run, but which. Some of them can hurt
performance severely, but others have no effect on performance.

Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you
should do is determine what each program is, what its value is to
you, and what the cost in performance is of its running all the
time. You can get more information about these with at
http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html. If you can't find it
there, try google searches and ask about specifics here.

Once you have that information, you can make an intelligent
informed decision about what you want to keep and what you want
to get rid of.


--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
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