How to Clear Customize Notifications (System Tray) Icons in Windows 7/Vista and XP

© Ramesh Srinivasan | Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP | 13th February 2007

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.


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]

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ TrayNotify

[Windows 7 & Windows Vista]

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Classes \ Local Settings \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ TrayNotify

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]


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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7 Comments

  1. vanilla5
    said this on Friday, August 27th 2010 3:07 am

    Thanks so much, it worked!!

  2. DaSnowMan
    said this on Sunday, February 21st 2010 2:32 pm

    It worked fine for my windows xp professional sp3

  3. block63
    said this on Friday, February 5th 2010 12:18 pm

    I was unsuccessful doing the manual deletion; however, the script worked. Many thanks for the script; the annoying temporary notification icons are gone.

  4. cornellbob
    said this on Saturday, December 19th 2009 9:44 am

    Thank you, it worked like a Charm!

  5. sara
    said this on Sunday, December 13th 2009 8:43 pm

    Thank you.

  6. unemployedninja
    said this on Sunday, December 13th 2009 1:19 pm

    Fantastic script! Glad to see you’ve added Windows 7 support. Thank you.

  7. retrogod
    said this on Wednesday, December 9th 2009 5:17 pm

    ive been looking for this for ages! finally i was able to remove those icons from my taskbar list!! thanks!!

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