Look at the lower right hand corner of your computer. This is called the System Tray.

Do you have a lot of icons down there?

Each of those icons represent a program running all the time on your computer, taking up memory and slowing your computer down.

Some of these icons may indicate problems with your computer.

How did those icons get in your System Tray?

In some cases, presumptuous programs put themselves there when they were installed. In some cases, these icons indicate things you need to fix.

Do you need them in your System Tray?

Probably not most of them. Possibly not any of them.

What should you do about them?

If you know for sure you need it, leave it. Otherwise, remove it from the System Tray. If you find you miss it, you can always put it back.

Here is how to remove them from your System Tray.

Left click on an icon to open the program. See what it is. If you do not absolutely need it running all the time,
remove it from the System Tray.

Find properties or settings for this program. If you cannot find the settings, close the program and then
try right clicking on the icon. If you still cannot find settings, go to your Start menu, Control Panel and look for settings for it.

Once you find the settings, look for a propery like:
- Place or Install in System Tray, or
- Automatically run when Windows starts

Turn that property off.

If the icon is still in the System Tray, right click on the icon and click exit or close.

When you restart Windows, it should be gone.

Repeat for each of the icons.

By Andrew Weitzen (c) 2010

Weitzen is the publisher of several online Internet journals including: InternetHandholding.com, DomainNames.gs, DotNetNuke.bz, Programmer.bz, Software.vg, WebHosting.vg