I need to disable the system tray completely

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I am a network admin/consultant for small-med sized businesses in southern
california. I have a client who wants to completely remove the system tray
from the windows shell... I'm assuming there is some way to do it through
the registry but I need to know which keys to remove/edit. He wants users to
see only the desktop and the taskbar/start menu. I have already locked it
down as much as I can with group policy, but they have some programs that run
in the system tray that they don't want the users to know about...(key
logger, and webcam timershot). The owner is extremely privacy/security
conscious. I have spent countless hours customizing his network to
synchronize all client webcam and keystroke data to a secret server that only
he and I have access to, and locking down every machine on the domain.
Clients do not have any permissions on their machines at all.....they can
only log in, and click one icon on the desktop. There is nothing in the
start menu, they cannot save any files locally, access control panel, install
usb devices, access the hard drive in any way, they cannot even
print.....They log in with a smart card that get's issued to them every
morning when they arrive. Hopefully this gives you some idea of how paranoid
the owner is....they deal with some very sensitive information and are
subject to some strict federally mandated guidelines. They are completely
locked out of EVERYTHING, with the exception of being able to end the
processes in the system tray. I know this seems overboard, but it is a
necessity. I need to do this without installing any additional software.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
 
Phillip said:
I am a network admin/consultant for small-med sized businesses in southern
california. I have a client who wants to completely remove the system tray
from the windows shell... I'm assuming there is some way to do it through
the registry but I need to know which keys to remove/edit. He wants users to
see only the desktop and the taskbar/start menu. I have already locked it
down as much as I can with group policy, but they have some programs that run
in the system tray that they don't want the users to know about...(key
logger, and webcam timershot). The owner is extremely privacy/security
conscious. I have spent countless hours customizing his network to
synchronize all client webcam and keystroke data to a secret server that only
he and I have access to, and locking down every machine on the domain.
Clients do not have any permissions on their machines at all.....they can
only log in, and click one icon on the desktop. There is nothing in the
start menu, they cannot save any files locally, access control panel, install
usb devices, access the hard drive in any way, they cannot even
print.....They log in with a smart card that get's issued to them every
morning when they arrive. Hopefully this gives you some idea of how paranoid
the owner is....they deal with some very sensitive information and are
subject to some strict federally mandated guidelines. They are completely
locked out of EVERYTHING, with the exception of being able to end the
processes in the system tray. I know this seems overboard, but it is a
necessity. I need to do this without installing any additional software.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Hide the notification area
http://www.boyce.us/gp/gpcontent.asp?ID=390

Supported On: At least Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Windows
Server 2003 family
Help/Explain Text: This setting affects the notification area
(previously called the system tray) on the taskbar. Description: The
notification area is located at the far right end of the task bar and
includes the icons for current notifications and the system clock. If
this setting is enabled, the user’s entire notification area, including
the notification icons, is hidden. The taskbar displays only the Start
button, taskbar buttons, custom toolbars (if any), and the system clock.
If this setting is disabled or is not configured, the notification area
is shown in the user's taskbar. Note: Enabling this setting overrides
the Turn off notification area cleanup setting, because if the
notification area is hidden, there is no need to clean up the icons.
Registry Settings:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer!NoTrayItemsDisplay
 
Eric,

Thanks for the quick reply. I also found that registry edit with a google
search, and that does accomplish what I needed as far as the system tray
goes. My goal here is complete secrecy.....Now they will not be able to see
the items running in the tasktray, which is awesome but I also need the
timershot application to start silently. It is at
c:\windows\system32\timershot.exe

It is just an XP powertoy that controls your webcam. Whenever users login,
it pops up because it is in the startup. I need it to stay in the startup,
but I want it to launch in the background so that users will not know it is
running.

Any ideas as to what syntax to add to the run reg key to get it to start
silently...... I already tried putting /s at the end, but it still popped up
where users could see it when they login.

Thanks again for the quick help........Let me know if you have any ideas on
how to get this process to start silently in the background.

Thanks,

Phillip Lee
 
I think spying on people is dishonest.

You should tell your "client" to ........... well I cant say that here.
 
Well, unfortunately your opinion does not matter to me or my client. It is
his property, and his right to monitor all activity on company property. It
is not my responsibilty to express my opinion or anyone elses to my
client....I am just an outside party doing my job. In this case, my client
is actually mandated by some pretty strict federal laws that require him to
implement surveilance due to the sensitivity of the data that they are
granted access to.

In any case, being at work constitutes a public place and therefore you
privacy is never gauranteed. The average person in a metropolitan area is
caught on surveilance over 200 times per day whether it be at the gas
station, red-light, supermarket, any public transportation, etc..... Why
should the workplace be any different?

Also, it can't really be considered spying when the cameras are in plain
sight and are there mainly for the protection of company assets, as well as
the employees safety. If it so happens that an employee is caught doing
something unethical on camera, then that's their own fault. I also think
spying is dishonest, and unethical but I also understand my clients need from
a business standpoint and I honestly do not feel he is spying in any way. He
simply wants me to disable the process from the system tray so that it's not
possible for anyone to tamper with the surveilance software. It would be a
different story if he asked me to install a camera in the ladies room or
something of that nature, but that's not the case.
 
I agree with you.

You are doing Very Important Work.

Keep Up The Good Work and Protect Our Secrets.

DSH
 
Just from a legal perspective - and these questions are rhetorical - I
wonder if this company has all employees sign a statement that they are
subject to video monitoring at anytime while on the premise? Or even a
statement that says their activities are subject to monitoring. IMHO if
that business is not properly notifying them of the possibility of
monitoring then they are opening a huge issue and possible litigation.

For instance what if they are not aware the cameras that are in public view
are actually running and snapping pictures and they close the door to their
office to change clothes - they have a reasonable expectation of privacy in
this situation - and it is not true. However, if the employer warns them of
the monitoring then the expectation is gone.

Just seems like a lot of issues to be exposed to.

If he truly wants to monitor I would recommend that he keeps the monitoring
in plain view and that part of the warning of monitoring (the above
mentioned statement about the monitoring that he should have the employee's
sign) is that any attempt to disrupt said monitoring could result in
dismissal - then he would not have to worry about them tampering - or at
least not having the means to deal with it.

Again - all rhetorical and my personal opinion.
 
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