Too many items on task bar

  • Thread starter Thread starter Echy
  • Start date Start date
E

Echy

Hello

I have too many items on my Task Bar (IE 6.0, Win XP Pro) including
one that is like a catch-all icon that you click on and contains about
a dozen more icons.

I have right clicked and removed them all but they are back when I
next start up.

Obviously I am not doing it right. Can someone please advise? Thanks
in advance.

Echy
 
Hi

Im not sure about the catch all icon but assuming these are all
programs you want to keep have you tried right clicking on them and
changing the preferences so the program wont start when windows starts?
You can look in the startup folder too in start - all programs -
startup and delete any programs that you do not want windows execute
when you logon, this only deletes a shortcut and not the whole program.
If you want to hide any icons you can right click on start - click on
properties - click on taskbar - click on customise and then change any
of your programs to always hide.

Hope this helps

Matt
 
matty said:
Hi

Im not sure about the catch all icon but assuming these are all
programs you want to keep have you tried right clicking on them and
changing the preferences so the program wont start when windows starts?
You can look in the startup folder too in start - all programs -
startup and delete any programs that you do not want windows execute
when you logon, this only deletes a shortcut and not the whole program.
If you want to hide any icons you can right click on start - click on
properties - click on taskbar - click on customise and then change any
of your programs to always hide.

Hope this helps

Matt
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. I tried the "always hide" solution but find
that they re-appear anyway, notwithstanding they have been changed to
hidden.

Will try the startup folders procedure you outlined.

Thanks again
Echy
 
Hi Echy,

In addition to removing icons from the startup folders, open each associated
program and check under its options/preferences/settings for a means of not
having it load in the startup group. This doesn't remove any of the
programs, it just keeps them from loading into resident memory at boot
(which, to me, is just arrogance on the part of the program vendor who is
assuming that you will want to run their software immediately after starting
your machine). If no option exists, click start/run, type msconfig and click
ok. On the startup tab you should find a list of programs that are loading
at boot. Uncheck those that you deem unnecessary (personally, I leave only
AV and a few other critical ones enabled). Incidentally, that 'catch-all'
icon is just an indicator that there are more than are being shown, this is
normal in a system that is set to not show frequently used icons. This
setting is found in the Taskbar and Start Menu settings as "Hide Inactive
Icons" on the Taskbar tab.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Rick said:
Hi Echy,

In addition to removing icons from the startup folders, open each associated
program and check under its options/preferences/settings for a means of not
having it load in the startup group. This doesn't remove any of the
programs, it just keeps them from loading into resident memory at boot
(which, to me, is just arrogance on the part of the program vendor who is
assuming that you will want to run their software immediately after starting
your machine). If no option exists, click start/run, type msconfig and click
ok. On the startup tab you should find a list of programs that are loading
at boot. Uncheck those that you deem unnecessary (personally, I leave only
AV and a few other critical ones enabled). Incidentally, that 'catch-all'
icon is just an indicator that there are more than are being shown, this is
normal in a system that is set to not show frequently used icons. This
setting is found in the Taskbar and Start Menu settings as "Hide Inactive
Icons" on the Taskbar tab.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. I'll work my way through this procedure too.

Re. the "catch-all" icon - you have described it much better than I did.

Echy
 
Back
Top