Android412

I have an external hard drive hooked up through USB. When I first plugged it in (as with any USB device) Windows (in this case win7) installs the driver, and puts the Safely Remove Hardware Icon for when you want to remove it.

But what if I never plan on removing it? Is there a way to get rid of the icon?

Not that it's terrible annoying, just seems pointless to have it there.

Android412

Bman

From all my searching over the years, no you can't remove it. But I could be wrong.

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American Zombie

In XP you could remove it through the registry.

In Vista and 7 you have to remove the Windows Explorer icon from displaying.
No time to type up the instructions so read for yourself.

Remove the ‘Safely Remove Hardware’ Icon in Windows 7 Permanently

perris

this looks like it will do the trick

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Bman

Both those links are the same hehe

And they say how to hide it, everyone knows how to do that. I want it GONE!

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Android412

I've already done the first thing, and I'm with Bman, I wanna get rid of it for good

Bman

And as I said, unless I suck at Google, I have spent a long time looking for away to do it. It's not possible.

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Dark Atheist

from all the googling i have been doing they all seem to show hide only, although there was one program that claimed to do it but it wasn't free

Android412

Yeah I think I found the same program, and if you read it really carefully it says that it can remove/hide devices from the list when you right click on the icon, but I dont think it can actually remove the icon itself.

You'd think it would be something simple, like telling windows to permanently mount as hard drive or something.

Ah well, thanks anyway. As I said in my first post it's not that big of a deal, just a small annoyance.

Android412