Safely Remove Hardware: where did the icon go? How do I safely remove hardware without it?

Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.

This problen is driving me crazy. The icon to update your computer comes up, I update it is all done but the yellow update icon won't go off my taskbar. What can I do to take it off the taskbar???

When creating a new shortcut, one must fill in the box,"Type the location of the item". I thought that only file locations (as specified in Internet Explorer)could be entered. But you insert "commands" (like Rundll32.exe.....)Please explain.

When my 'Safely Remove Hardware' icon disappears, I click on the arrow that expands the icon tray and there it is! It wasn't gone - just hiding!

SUPERB tip, prof.Leo!
[as are ALL Your Tips, but this one was bleeping brilliant...]
ManyThanks
cheers,
dar
'i'm not a complete idiot,
some parts are missing.'

Thanks much Leo, what a great tip (I just can't wait to share it with others, lol); and by the way, I really love these various functions hidden in the rundll32.exe library ...

Maybe just one possibly related thing to note; I've noticed that if I plug my USB drive into one of the available USB ports, that icon doesn't appear at all in the first place (the window on the other hand does appear), and I can't use that port at all (i.e. the drive doesn't appear in the list of available drives), while also, I think that plugging-in the USB drive into that particular port (if I recall correctly) generates the message saying something like: "The drive will not work at its maximum speed..." (and adds: "...but it is possible to use it at the maximum speed.", or again, something like that.

________

take cares,
Ivan Tadej, Slovenija, EU
http://www.tadej-ivan.be/

I have an old version (512MB) mp3 player which I connect to the computer every now and then but I don't often (almost never) use the 'Safely Remove Hardware' to remove my device. Sometime some of the music stops playing in the middle. I wonder if my arrogance is causing the problem.

I followed Mr. Leo's enlightened suggestion, then thought, "What the heck, I'll put the shortcut in my Quick Launch toolbar." Does Microsoft have an "official" remedy for the reappearance of the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon disappearing act?

Crud, so I brought up the dialog and made a shortcut, but my thumb drives aren't on the list for me to remove them. Yet they still show up in my computer. Ticks me off, as the sound icon is also gone from my taskbar even though I have it set to always appear and even though I keep getting it back somehow or another. Computers, they hate me.

Anyway, wonderful article and at least I can get to the dialog now!

I've tried EVERY solution I could find on the internet. SHortcuts, changing the hardware settings, etc, etc... I found that the REAL problem is UpNp. As soon as I disabled UpNp, the icon came back and I've never had any problems with it. I found a small download that easily and safely disables UpNp at : http://www.grc.com/unpnp/unpnp.htm. UpNp was the real problem, all the other things were just short fixes.

Many thanks for your tip on resolving a frustrating problem. I created a shortcut per your instructions and it works fine.

To post a comment on "Safely Remove Hardware: where did the icon go? How do I safely remove hardware without it?", please return to that article's main page.