"Safely remove hardware" you hate that message???

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Power Downloader's iconic removal

One of Power Downloader's pet personal computer peeves is the SafelyRemove Hardware icon that pops up and nags him anytime he removes adevice. External hard drive, thumb drive, a USB-powered fan--there's noescaping that pesky pop-up.

Except, of course, there is a solution. In fact, there are two easysolutions, says Power Downloader: One uses a small program, while theother involves tweaking the QuickLaunch bar's properties.

The tiny and free program called Icon Remover comes with twofunctions: a button to remove the Safely Remove Hardware icon, and asecond button to restore it. That's all the app does, but it'scertainly the simplest way to tame that unruly icon. Simple andeffective, it's a reasonable way to solve the problem without having toremember various twists and turns in the QuickLaunch properties box.


If that labyrinthine pathway to icon removal appeals to you, or ifyou prefer to not download a 500KB program for such a tiny issue, thereis a way to access that icon's behavior from within Windows thatdoesn't involve hacking the Registry. Right-click on the QuickLaunchbar in the tiny space below the clock, and select Properties from thecontext menu that appears.

Under the Notification area, hit Customize and then scroll throughthe choices until you see Safely Remove Hardware. Change the defaultsetting of Hide When Inactive to Always Hide--you've now taught thatannoying pop-up to stay down, and you've prevented one of PowerDownloader's pet peeves from becoming your own

* License:Free
* Requirements: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista
* Limitations: No limitations
* Date Added:April 9, 2008


Some new USB devices such as ADSL cable modems, SATA HDD drives,ZIP Drives, External CDROMs are hotplug devices. A hotplug device meansthat you can remove the device any time without switching off thecomputer. If you want to remove the device, click the Safely RemoveHardware icon in the system tray (a small green arrow near the clock).It's possible that you never unplug this device.

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Click here to download icon remover