How to remove (not hide) the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon

Question

I want to remove the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon from the system tray, do I need to change the registry? Also how can I remove some devices in the "Safely Remove Hardware" list?

I do not want to use this tool, and I want to remove it from my system tray

Solution

For the second part of your answer you should have a look at this SuperUser question

The first part of your question is very doable, if you just let me know the version of Windows you are using I will post the steps.

Also have a look at this article: http://fightingforalostcause.net/blog/?p=1044 Main points detailed below:

The driver for the device has a flag telling Windows that it is a 'removable' device, which gets loaded into the registry whenever the device is loaded. So, you basically just need to setup a way to automatically overwrite the registry value when the system boots.

First you'll need to get the ID of the device you want to remove. •Open Device Manager (Start > Run > devmgmt.msc) •Right-click on the device and go to Properties, then open the Details tab •The 'Device Instance Id' item will be selected by default in the drop-down list •It will look something like 'IDE\CDROMPBDS_DVD+RW_DS8W1P[...]\DB1B[...]\5&C10F4F&0&0.0.0 •Keep that window open, or write down the ID because you'll need it in the next step

The next step is to modify the removable value in the registry. •Open the registry editor (Start > Run > regedit) •Drill down to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum •Then use the sections of the ID to locate the device (e.g., IDE, then CDROMPBDS_DVD+RW_DS8W1P[...]\DB1B[...] then 5&C10F4F&0&0.0.0 •By default you probably won't have permssion to modify the value, so right click on the key (folder) and go to Permissions and give your account 'Full Control' •Inside that key will be a value named 'Capabilities', which will have a value of 4 or 6 or some higher number •Right click on the value and select 'Modify,' then subtract 4 from the value (e.g., change 6 to 2, 4 to 0, etc) and click 'Ok' At this point the device isn't recognized as removable. It might take windows a moment to update the Safely Remove Hardware app, or you might have to open it up to refresh it, but the device is updated. The icon may stick around, but after the next step that will be taken care of.

The last step is to make sure that the value is automatically updated every time Windows boots (because the value is loaded from the device driver every time, so we have to overwrite it every time). •Go to File > Export and save the key to somewhere on your computer • Open it with a text editor and get rid of all the extra subkeys and values that we don't want to change. In the end it should look something like this:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\IDE\CdRomPBDS_DVD+-RW_DS-8W1P____________________BD1B____\5&c10f4f&0&0.0.0] "Capabilities"=dword:00000002

•Back in the registry editor, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run •Right click > New > String value •Give it a name then Right click and Modify •Enter regedit /s "C:\Documents and Settings\user\My Documents\DVD Not Removable.reg" (Update the path for where you saved the file and what you named it)

Now that .reg file containing the updated value will be loaded every time you log on to your account and (assuming it was the only removable device) the Safely Remove Hardware icon won't show up anymore.

Update: Check comment #28 if you're running Windows 7 * Comment 28 loops back to the SuperUser question I linked you through to.

To hide that icon in Windows XP simply use the "Hide inactive icons" feature, setting it to "Always hide"

Right-click Taskbar > Properties > Check "Hide inactive icons" > Customize

This would require setting your other icons to an appropriate setting though eg "Always show"

Comments

[squareborg]

Why do you have another way to safely remove hardware?

[VBwhatnow]

I would strongly advise you dismount all of your drives properly when removing them. This request sounds dangerous

[Joe Taylor]

What version of Windows are you using please?

[cyclamen]

I use windows xp with sp3

[Synetech]

Another example: I have a small flash-drive permanently plugged into the back of my computer so that I can boot DOS from it when I want, and obviously rarely, if ever need to eject it. I have even configured it for performance instead of fast removal, and it still shows up in the list and creates the icon even if there are no other removable drives plugged in.

[David Balažic]

I'm sure this is possible with some system policy setting. I am looking at the opposite problem: a regular user on a Windows Server does not have this icon on systray and I want it to be there.

[Synetech]

It clearly asks to remove it not hide it. However the icon should not be created at all if there are no removable drives, so configuring any removable drives to appear as non-removable, that should accomplish the goal of removing the icon.

[matan129]

Bad habit to delete critical dll files from System32. Even worse with some unknown uninstaller application. Their site is ranked very poorly at WOT.

[Tony Knerr]

I've been using Perfect Uninstaller for years with no problems, it's great at removing all traces of previously installed software, removes all files and registry entries. 'unknown'?, hardly, I know it very well. stobject.dll is not a 'critical' dll file, either.

[hram908]

-1 the link is malware