Removing system tray icons

[hatemf23]

Hi,

Is it possible to remove a program's tray icon and still keep the program running? not hide but completely remove. Im trying to remove Steam's icon because I dont want my account to be visible but still keep the games available. Steam doesnt have an option for this, could it be done another way?

 

[sdadamo]

Well if this helps you:

Windows key + r and run "msconfig". Go to the startup tab and uncheck Steam. That will not load your icon and you will not see it ever again until you load Steam. I think you should stick with hiding it because if you hide it, it still doesn't show your account regardless, right? I'm not a big steam fan so I'm not 100% sure as to how it works.

 

[hatemf23]

Thanks but this will stop steam from loading at startup, but when opening a game for example steam will be running normally again..

 

[sdadamo]

That's kind of how I'd do it so there's less to load in the beginning. As I said, I think you're just better off hiding it from the tray.

 

[Alejandro85]

Windows don't provide any means to add or remove icons to the tray, it's entirely up to each program to show one or remove it. At most, Windows only provides an option to hide some of them, but completely removing is something only the program can do.

You have to either, find an option within the program to remove it (or if it doesn't exist and it's an open source program, maybe you can request it to be added), hide it using the Windows option (it'll be still there, but not so easy to see), or just close the program (which you lose its functions but gets rid of the icon).