This article describes how to clear the past and current items list in the Customize Notifications window in Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP. Also, at the end of the article we provide a VBScript to automate the task.
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Fig 1: Customize Notifications Dialog
To clear the Customize Notifications items list manually, follow the steps below:
1. Click Start, type regedit.exe and press {Enter}
2. Navigate to the following branch:
[Windows XP]
[Windows 7 & Windows Vista]
3. Delete the two values namely IconStreams and PastIconsStream
4. Exit the Registry Editor
5. Terminate Windows Explorer / Shell cleanly. [Instructions for Windows XP / Windows Vista, Windows 7]
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Fig 2: Customize Notifications items cleared. Currently running programs regenerate their entries.
Script to Automate
Here is a VBScript (runs in Windows XP/Vista/7) that can automate the above task for you. Download clear-notification-items.zip, unzip and run clear-notification-items.vbs file. It clears Customize Notifications items and restarts Explorer shell automatically.
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Re: “The manual system did not work”
Instead of deleting the registry entries using the keyboard delete key, right click on the entry and select delete in the pop-up menu.
Bingo. Many thanks for the script. IT WORKS. The manual version does not.
I’ve been looking for this ages too! THANK YOU! but manual version does not work, don’t even waste your time. script version works as a CHARM!
thanks!
no luck with the manual attempt, but the script worked perfectly, and will no doubt come in handy again…
good work!
I used this before and some reason it won’t work now. Running windows 7 64 bit. Any ideas?
THANK YOU SO MUCH IT WORKED SO FINE but the manual deletion didn’t work as there were no such values as iconstreams and pasticonsstream on windows 7
Thanks so much, it worked!!
Fantastic script! Glad to see you’ve added Windows 7 support. Thank you.