We continue our series about the taskbar with a tutorial about the notification area. Although the notification area is present in the Windows graphical user interface since Windows 95, never before had it been so easy to customize as it is in Windows 7. This article shows you several tricks about configuring it and transforming it into something more appropriate to your needs. I will show: how to locate the notification area, control the display behavior of notification icons, turn on or off system icons, restore the default behavior of the notification area, set the notification icons to be always displayed, and change the position of individual notification icons.

What is the notification area?

The notification area is located by default at the right end of the taskbar; it is also referred to as the system tray. Its purpose is to provide:

• easy access to certain system functions (e.g. date and time, volume, network, action center);
• system notifications (the notification balloons that pop in the notification area, for example, when an USB stick is successfully removed);
• easy access to applications that are capable to display their icon in the notification area.

Note: The notification area icons (system or application-related) can either be shown, or hidden. Whenever there is at least a single hidden icon, the notification area displays an arrow that, when clicked, allows the user to reveal the hidden icons.

How to access the notification area settings

The notification area can be controlled using a settings window. It allows you to set the display behavior of all notification area icons, turn system icons on or off (e.g. time/date, volume), restore default icon behaviors, and set the notification icons to be always displayed. To use the notification area settings, you have to access them first. You can use several methods, all with the same result. Here are two easy ones:

The simplest way is to click the arrow displayed on the left side of the notification area and then on the Customize link.

An alternative is to click the Start button and search for the word 'notification' in the Start Menu search box. From the list of results click on 'Notification Area Icons'.

You now know how to access the notification area settings. Let's find out how to actually use them.

How to control the display behavior of the notification area icons

The notification area settings window displays the list of system and application icons that are available for display and customization along with their associated behavior.

For each icon in the list there are three available display behaviors:

• Show icon and notifications: the icon and its related notifications are always displayed in the notification area;
• Hide icon and notifications: the icon and its related notifications are always hidden (you can access them by clicking the arrow);
• Only show notifications: the icon is hidden, but its related notifications are displayed whenever they are triggered by the application.

After making the desired changes, click OK.

How to turn system icons on or off

The system icons like those for volume, network status, action center, battery status can be completely hidden (they will not be displayed even after revealing the notification area icons by clicking the arrow). To toggle the visibility of the available system icons in the notification area, click 'Turn system icons on or off'.

In the next page, for each icon in the list there are two available options: On and Off. After making the desired changes, click OK.

How to restore default icon behaviors

Sometimes it's easy to mess up the display options, so it would be helpful to be able to undo your changes and return to the default behavior. The default icon behaviors are: 'Show icon and notifications' for system icons and 'Only show notifications' for application icons (see above for more details on these options).To restore the default icon behaviors, click the 'Restore default icon behaviors' link and then click OK.

How to set notification icons to be always displayed

You can choose to always have all the notification area icons and notifications displayed. To do that you need to check 'Always show all icons and notifications' and then click OK.

How to change the position of individual icons in the notification area

To change the position of individual icons in the notification area just drag-and-drop the icon you want to move in the desired place.

NOTE: Using drag-and-drop you can also hide or display notification area icons.

Conclusion

This tutorial pointed out several available options if you want to customize the notification area in Windows 7. By now, you should be fairly familiar with what exactly the notification area is, what kind of icons it displays and how to control their display behavior. Feel free to drop us some lines about your experiences and whether this tutorial was useful to you or not.

Related articles:

How to Clean the Notification Area Icon Cache
How to Work with the Action Center
How to Pin Any Folder to the Windows 7 Taskbar
How to Pin Special Windows Items to the Taskbar
How to Create your Own Custom Jump List