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Summary: The area of you Windows taskbar near the clock can have an icon for every network connection. We'll look at how to get only those you care about.
Yes, there are at least two ways that I can think of: disable the network card, or turn off the "show icon" option. It's probably the later one that you really want, but most people don't even know it exists. • To be clear, we're talking about the icon(s) that appear in what's called the "notification area", or more commonly, "that place down in the lower right of the screen where the clock is":
Here you can see a single network icon visible, since I've already actually turned off any others. Right click on the network icon you want to change, and click on Status:
Now click on the Properties button:
You can see I've indicated the setting you care about: uncheck Show icon in notification area when connected as well as Notify me when this connection has limited or no connectivity. That should get you what you want. The other alternative is a tad more drastic, but in the case of your laptop's wireless card it will actually lengthen your battery life. Back at the Connection dialog above, click on the Disable button, instead of Properties. This will actually disable the network connection, and in the case of most wireless cards, turn off the associated hardware. If you're not using your wireless, then this will cut down on your power usage. To re-enable a disabled network interface, simply go to Control Panel, Network Connections. There you should see a list of all the available connections, regardless of state:
Here you can see that one of my network connections is, indeed, disabled. If I right click on that connection, the option to enable it appears:
Note that this applies to Windows XP. In Windows Vista this has been significantly revamped, and if I understand correctly there is only one network icon visible in the notification area that represents all available networks at once. Related: • Recent Comments
This did not work for me......there was no tick mark there, so I ticked it and then removed the tick....nothing......i am wondering if something is screwy with my xp program, cuz i have to set my mouse pointer speed up everytime i turn on my laptop....nothing else changes, so i am just wondering if changes are not being saved on shutdown. good article tho, i forgot that method, i used to click on the taskbar, then properties, and then hide the icon. Posted by: Karen Foerter at March 14, 2008 06:59 PMPost a comment on "How do I get rid of unused network icons in my taskbar notification area?":
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