Suppress icons in taskbar 'hidden icons' ?

[audiobabble]

Apologies if this isn't strictly NTlite-related, but I figured some experienced 'tinkerers' might have a solution to this...

So... if an app is running in the background, it will generally show an icon in the 'hidden icons' in taskbar. Is there a way to have the app still running but no icon in taskbar, and generally no icon anywhere else?

It's just that my collection of little 'helpers' is growing somewhat but most of them are not things I often need to access, so I'd rather they didn't clutter things up.

Would be interested in solutions for either/or win 11/win 10 since I run both.

(or just tell me to bugger off if this isn't appropriate to ask here!)

 

[garlin]

No, because normal Win32 apps written by most devs have registered CLSID's or other registry associations to explicitly inform Windows that they're running, and users should be able to interact from the taskbar or task tray.

Registered apps can't be hidden from the taskbar. Processes that don't show while running are unregistered (or really primitive apps or scripts). Scripts will manifest themselves, only because you can see the parent interpreter (CMD, PowerShell, Python) running.

Apps in the task tray have registered themselves with the Notification Center.

What you're looking for, requires an UI modification along the lines of ExplorerPatcher or other similar desktop UI mods.

 

[audiobabble]

No, because normal Win32 apps written by most devs have registered CLSID's or other registry associations to explicitly inform Windows that they're running, and users should be able to interact from the taskbar or task tray.

Registered apps can't be hidden from the taskbar. Processes that don't show while running are unregistered (or really primitive apps or scripts). Scripts will manifest themselves, only because you can see the parent interpreter (CMD, PowerShell, Python) running.

Apps in the task tray have registered themselves with the Notification Center.

What you're looking for, requires an UI modification along the lines of ExplorerPatcher or other similar desktop UI mods.

Thanks for that. ExplorerPatcher doesn't seem to be able to do quite that sort of thing... there may be other UI tweakers that can.
Was a bit of a 'wish-list' idea anyway!

 

[Hellbovine]

Many icons can be hidden without also disabling the app. The Nvidia control panel for example can be hidden with a mundane key. The easy way to figure this out for all the apps someone can install is to download a registry compare tool, right-click on icons and try to hide them by exploring its settings, record a snapshot before and after disabling the tray icon, then integrate that key into an NTLite image if desired.

Also, the following steps in W10 will get us to a page where we can toggle icons: Start > Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > and there we can adjust the "Combine taskbar buttons" as well as hiding individual system and app icons using the links labeled, "Select which icons appear on the taskbar" and "Turn system icons on or off" from this menu. There are also group policy keys which hide them as well, such as the "Meet Now" icon.