Help me fix my Taskbar

[DeeBye]

This is what I am greeted with every time I boot up my computer. I need to know how to get rid of that icon. My volume is fine, ZoneAlarm is fine, AVG is fine -- it's the "safely remove hardware" icon that is driving me crazy.

I can pinpoint exactly where it is coming from -- Windows XP doesn't like my Lexmark X73 (all in one scanner/copier/printer).

I used to have the X73 installed on a Windows 98SE computer, and I had no problems whatsoever. It worked great (and still does). When I upgraded to XP, it choked on the X73 installation. I was able to install the printer, but it seemed to think that the scanner portion of the X73 was ... bad, or something. I've tried multiple times to install/uninstall/reinstall it, and I've always been met with the same result.

At this point I have to say that my X73 works flawlessly for me under XP, even with the erroneous taskbar notice. I can scan with it, I can print, and I can copy. When I uninstall the X73, the icon goes away. When I don't use the scanner for a couple of months (on a timer?), it goes away. As soon as I scan something it comes right back.

I like my X73. It does everything I want it to do. I just want my OS to acknowledge the fact that it is indeed installed and I don't have to remove any hardware.

Help?

[yangman]

The "safely remove hardware" feature is used for devices such as external drives to make sure that they are not carelessly unplugged. It doesn't mean Windows wants to remove the device: it means Windows doesn't want you to unplug the device without first deactivating it through said "tool".

Some USB devices that needs to transfer large amounts of data to and from your PC will activate this protection so that the risk of damage by data corruption is lessened.

When you are not using your scanner, it will become invisible to your computer since it is in suspended mode or turned off all together: no need to try and protect something that doesn't exist. Activate it again, and the warning goes up.

If it's really annoying you, you can disable the icon by accessing its options. (IIRC, double-clicking on the icon will bring up its interface) However, I recommend that you leave it there as it is, and do actually properly disable your device before unplugging.

[DeeBye]

If it's really annoying you, you can disable the icon by accessing its options. (IIRC, double-clicking on the icon will bring up its interface)

I did, and this is the result.



I DO NOT want to uninstall my X73 (again). It works fine. It prints and it scans.

However, I recommend that you leave it there as it is, and do actually properly disable your device before unplugging.

I've properly installed and properly uninstalled my device many times. I just want my taskbar to be rid of the Safely Remove Hardware icon.

[LochnarITB]

If it's really annoying you, you can disable the icon by accessing its options. (IIRC, double-clicking on the icon will bring up its interface) However, I recommend that you leave it there as it is, and do actually properly disable your device before unplugging.

I haven't been able to find a way to remove that icon from my systray. One of my pet peeves on XP is when a program will plop its little icon down in the tray adding more clutter that I have to clean away. I have the icon because I added a 160 gig USB drive to my notebook for backups and storing CD images since my CD/DVD drive is so flaky. I have set the drive properties to non-disk caching so I shouldn't have to "safely remove hardware" because it is safe to yank the plug at any time without worrying about large cached data not having been written. Even so, the icon will not go away until I do actually unplug the drive from the USB port. I finally gave up and told windows to just hide the icon. If you right click on an empty part of the task bar you will see properties at the bottom of the menu. Pick it. On the Task Bar and Start Menu Properties popup you will see a check box that says Hide inactive icons. Check it. Then click the Customize button. Find the icon in question, click it and choose Always hide. Ok that second popup window and then click Apply on the first window. The icon will now be hidden. However, it is now replaced with a double arrow indicating that an icon is hidden. :blink: Please oh please. Somebody save us from Bill Gates and his evil, controlling, bloated, cater to the lowest denominator, add it because somebody somewhere might want it someday, piece of marketing called an operating system. :angry:

[Thecla]

Did you try running msconfig? It may be listed under the startup items there; if so you can uncheck it.

Otherwise, you could try regedit: the key

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

has a number of programs that start automatically, and you can delete the corresponding values to stop this. (Needless to say, you should back up your registry before making any changes.)

[LochnarITB]

Did you try running msconfig? It may be listed under the startup items there; if so you can uncheck it.

Otherwise, you could try regedit: the key

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

has a number of programs that start automatically, and you can delete the corresponding values to stop this. (Needless to say, you should back up your registry before making any changes.)

No, that won't work. This isn't a function of system startup. The icon appears and disappears as you plug in and unplug USB devices so I am pretty sure it is part of the USB driver. If someone does have a way of truly killing the icon, I would love to hear it. But, short of disabling USB altogether, I don't think there is a way. :(