If your taskbar is littered with distractors, you will have a hard getting work done. Find out how to get rid of system icons such as Windows Ink or similar with a few clicks!
A well-managed taskbar is a happy taskbar! If you are constantly distracting yourself with a plethora of visuals on your taskbar, you will find difficulty in focusing on your work.
This is especially true for people who are likely to get distracted by objects like the clock, Windows Ink Workspace, or other objects in the taskbar. Here’s the full list of system icons in Windows 10:
- Clock
- Volume
- Network
- Power
- Input Indicator
- Location
- Action Center
- Touch keyboard
- Windows Ink Workspace
While these are system icons and hence can be presumed to be “untouchable”, we are here to bust that myth for you.
Similar to our prior guide on how to reduce the clutter of third-party installed apps on your taskbar, we are going to explore the same avenue of cleaning up the clutter for system icons using a few simple clicks!
Read also: Too many taskbar icons in Windows 10? Here’s how to hide them
How to hide system apps icons from the system tray in taskbar
The only prerequisite for this guide is being on the Anniversary Update, Build 14393, or later.
Much like the mentioned guide, you can start your journey by right-clicking on an empty region on your desktop and selecting “Settings“.
You will again scroll down to the near end of the new menu until you find the option of “Turn system icons on or off” as indicated by the green highlight below:
When you click on the option, you will once again see a number of toggles before you. Depending on which app you wish to enable or disable, you can freely choose the necessary toggles seamlessly and tinker with them as you please!
As you tinker with each necessary toggle, you will see the relevant icon appear or disappear from your taskbar, meaning that you don’t need to worry about restarting the system, or saving / applying your work for it to register.
If you wish to undo hiding of any of the toggles, simply follow the above steps and get to this menu once more and undo the toggles which you wish to reverse.
Some notable distractors which you should prominently get rid of are (assuming you are on a laptop) are touch keyboard, input indicator, Location, and other unnecessary switches that take up a place on your taskbar. Just hide them! You can always unhide them later if you find out you needed them.
Which of the toggles have you enabled or disabled? Let us know your choices in the comments section below!