How to disable the notification area in Windows 10

When was the last time you launched something from the Windows notification area? The notification area, also known as the system tray, is located to the right of the Windows taskbar, just to the left of the system clock. It contains icons for running applications and sends notifications to your PC, such as updates.

If the Windows notification area is taking up too much space on your screen, here's how to get rid of it and reclaim that precious space on the taskbar. You can get all the important notifications and updates in other easy ways.

There are a few ways you can do this.

1. Use Local Group Policy for All Users

This tweak only works if you are running the Pro, Enterprise or Education edition of Windows 10 and you must be logged in as admin to show or hide the notification area. These are the things to do.

1. Press Win + R to open Run.

2. Type 'gpedit.msc' and click OK.

3. In the left panel of Local Group Policy Editor, under User Configuration , expand Administrative Templates .

4. Click Start Menu and Taskbar to open its settings.

5. In the right panel, double click Hide the notification area .

6. Select Enabled in the window that opens and click OK to hide the notification area on the Windows taskbar.

7. If you want to unhide the taskbar notification area, select Not Configured in step 6.

You will need to restart File Explorer for the changes to take effect.

2. Use Local Group Policy for a Specific User

You can also apply this change to a specific user or group of users. To do this, you need to first set up Local Group Policy for the specific user(s).

Once that is done, double click on the generated file to modify the Local Group Policy for a specific user to open the control panel for that user or group and follow steps 3 to 7 listed above to hide or unhide the notification area in Windows.

3. Use Registry Editor

Registry Editor is a powerful tool you can use to make Windows work the way you want it to. Here's how to hide the notification area by editing the Windows Registry.

1. Open the Registry Editor.

2. Perform steps 3 through 6 for each of the following directories in the registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer

3. To hide the taskbar notification area in Windows, right-click the black space on the right panel and select New > DWORD .

4. Rename it to NoTrayItemsDisplay.

5. Double click on this newly created DWORD and set its value to '1'.

6. To show or unhide the notification area in Windows, delete the DWORD at each location of the registry.

Kareem Winters

Update 24 July 2023