Control the Behavior of Items in the Notification Area in XP

The Notification Area is the section of the Windows XP taskbar located at the far right of the screen that holds the clock and other important items. This area may also be referred to as the "System Tray". In another tip I discussed how the Windows XP Notification Area automatically hides icons that are not being used in order to save taskbar space.

You can further control the Notification Area by specifying the notification behavior of individual items that reside there. Each item in the Notification Area has three options available as listed below:

• Hide when inactive:
  This is generally the default behavior. When this behavior is chosen, the item will automatically slide out of site when it has not been used recently.
  
• Always hide:
  When this behavior is chosen, the item will always stay in the "hidden" part of the Notification Area even if it has been used recently.
  
• Always show:
  When this behavior is chosen, the item will always stay in the "visible" part of the Notification Area even if it has not been used recently.

To choose the behavior of Notification Area items:

1. Right-click an open area of the taskbar and then click "Properties". The Taskbar and Start menu Properties window should load with the "Taskbar" tab open.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. In the section labelled "Notification Area", click "Customize". The "Customize Notifications" window should open.
   
3. Click on the desired item to display a drop-down list of the three available behavior options.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Click on the desired behavior option in the drop-down list and then click "OK" to save the changes and exit the "Customize Notifications" window.
   
5. Click "OK" again to exit the Taskbar and Start menu Properties window.

Any changes you made to the Notification Area items should now be reflected in the Notification Area.