Icon

[Anonymous user]

How do I hide the PowerChute Personal Edition tray icon?

Selecting 'Always Hide' in (right click) Start>Properties>Taskbar>Customize hides the icon until restart, but I want to permanently 'Always Hide' it.

It is the only icon that I cannot hide.

[Anonymous user]

I also am having this problem on a freshly built XP box with SP2. No other icons exhibit this irritating behavior, including NORTON.

Please, any suggestions would be appreciated.

/Hugh

Message was edited by: mordel

[Anonymous user]

It's obviously not just Arctucas having this problem, and it's definitely specific to PowerChute. I'm still having this problem, 2 years later. Any news on a potential solution?

[BillP]

I am on this forum right now for this specific issue. I keep setting the icon to `Always Hide,E' but within a day or two there it is again; that ugly, pointless APC systray icon. Not only do I not want it to `Always Show,E' I want it completely gone from my systray. I have as much need for a Powerchute icon, as I do for a `Notepad' or 'Minesweeper' icon. It is completely unnecessary. At the very least, I would like to be able to keep it autohidden.

Message was edited by: Quankers

Message was edited by: Quankers

[BillP]

I have the same problem on my home and my office PCs. Both use XP Pro.

I corresponded with APC back in 2005 on the problem making the APC icon in the system tray behave properly. Here is APC's response from 9/12/05--

"This is not a computer issue, rather, it is a feature of the APC software. The icon would always come up sooner or later even if it is set to Hidden mode. As long as the PowerChute software is active on the system, the icon would always appear. This shows that the software is running in the background at all times.

Hope this information is helpful!

Have a good day!"

Rick

[Anonymous user]

Arctucas,

What operating system are you installing PowerChute Personal edition on?

Does the icon hide after the system loads on it's own, or do you have to tell it to hide every time in order to get it to hide for that session?

[TheNotoriousKMP_apc]

I've had a few problems like this with other Icons that I do not want displayed (Mainly, Norton products). It took me a few attempts and restarts to get PCPE from appearing in my XP System Tray. Try it a few times, it should stick eventually.

[Anonymous user]

OS is XP Pro SP2.

[Anonymous user]

I have tried repeatedly, and when I think about it, it may have worked once, but it always reappears.

Maybe there is a registry hack?

[Anonymous user]

No one has any ideas?

[TheNotoriousKMP_apc]

Nick,

Since I've been able to accomplish it on my PC over a year ago when I first bought it and hooked the UPS up, I'm out of ideas. It doesn't point to anything to do with APC however. Moreso just a problem with that hide/show icons section of XP.

[Anonymous user]

Notorious,

I would accept your theory were it not for the fact that I have a half dozen or so other icons that 'Always Hide' and remain hidden.

No, it is something to do with PowerChute, i.e. only the PowerChute icon exhibits this behavior.

[TheNotoriousKMP_apc]

I would believe that, except I have the same problem with Norton on my computer, and I haven't used Norton in over a year. I don't assume that it's a problem with Norton, I know it's a problem with settings being saved within the OS.

[Anonymous user]

Notorious,

OK, I agree that the setting is not being saved by Windows, but I still believe something within the PowerChute code is causing this.

I guess I could always just uninstall PowerChute and use the Windows UPS monitoring.

[Anonymous user]

Nice try, but as I read through the links, I believe the solutions were to hide ALL icons.

I do not want to disable or remove the PowerChute icon, merely hide it until I wish to access the program.

I do hide all my icons except my LAN icon. Or rather, I would, if the accursed PowerChute icon would just play by the rules and stay hidden like the other six icons in the tray! I guess I will just uninstall the program until APC decides to figure it out.

Thanks for trying.

[TheNotoriousKMP_apc]

When you make changes to the System Tray, it's written in the Registry as User Settings. Therefore, PowerChute can't really access that information and create an argument with the key saying "no, always appear". I can get all of my Icons to disappear by selecting it, but as soon as I reboot my machine, the ones I never wanted there, come back.

The alternative other than using Native would be to hide the Taskbar.

[Anonymous user]

Notorious,

As to hiding the Taskbar; not really an option for me.

I could always use StartMenu>Programs>APC to access the PowerChute control panel, but, then why have a tray icon?

I have been emailing 'Isaac' at APC, but so far no solution has been forthcoming.

Is there not some registry hack that could resolve this issue?

[TheNotoriousKMP_apc]

I understand.

Your question regarding accessing the PCPE Control Panel by navigating the Start Menu? Well, as soon as you bring the control panel up, it's going to place the icon in the systray. I found a few sites that discuss this, but I can by no means, go on the record and say I support doing this. As for Isaac, he's on our Level 1 support, and I am Escalation support. The difference? More than 2 years of dealing with APC products. I'll let you decide whether you want to continue with him via email.

http://www.ghacks.net/2008/02/15/hide-all-system-tray-icons/

http://www.computing.net/windows2000/wwwboard/forum/62270.html

http://www.errorforum.com/microsoft-windows-xp-error/23544-xp-how-hide-system-tray-icons.html

[TheNotoriousKMP_apc]

Something makes me wonder why you and I are the only two going back and forth on this when there are other end-users who use PowerChute who have also not complained about this.

I'm sorry that I cannot be more convincing that this is not on the PCPE software side.

If I were to take the time to go test all 6 XP machines in our lab, and hide the icon on all 6, and reboot and the icon stays hidden, what would that lead you to believe? At that point would you still believe it's something related to the software or would you start to lean more towards it being machine specific?

[Anonymous user]

Notorious,

With all due respect, as I am sure you are more familiar with the PowerChute software than I am, all I can do is relate my experience to you.

I understand your position that each PC is different, but as I have stated, the PowerChute icon is the only icon that I cannot 'Always Hide', although it may stay hidden for several consecutive restarts, and then suddenly reappear. When this occurs, I check the Start>Properties>Taskbar>Customize>Cutomize Notifications; the option is always reset to 'Always Show'.

I believe, although I may be wrong, that there is a fundamental difference between the way the PowerChute tray icon is displayed and other programs' icons are displayed.

No matter, as I have uninstalled the software.

While the software functional, the inconsistent behavior of the icon is just an irritation I can do without, thank you.

[BillP]

Same problem on my computer too. ALL other icons (including Symantec AV) stay hidden. APC Powerchute is the only one to keep popping up. The previous email seems to indicate that this is a feature rather than a bug. Notorious, can you comment on this?

Message was edited by: tubby17

[TheNotoriousKMP_apc]

Simon,

I don't really think Rick's reply from APC support over 2 years ago is anything close to accurate. PCPE 2.0 I don't believe was released then (I'm just being lazy and not checking the release date right now). However, I would assume in the next update of PCPE that it may be addressed. This may be one of those unknown issues with Windows that just seems to keep popping back up. Since putting my UPS back into service at my residence, and activating PCPE, the system tray icon will pop up occasionally after being set to hidden. The same thing happens with Norton A/V and Nortan Internet Security. So on my personal end, I'm chalking it up to everyone's friend, Bill Gates:

"It's not a bug, it's a 'feature'."

[BillP]

Thanks for the quick reply, Kevin. As far as bugs go, this is one that I'm not gonna lose sleep over. Hopefully we'll see a fix for this in the next version...perhaps even a checkbox in the app itself that lets you choose whether you want it to appear in the taskbar (crossing fingers).

[Anonymous user]

Allow me to add my interest in this thread. I have 2 APC UPSs; One on each computer; Both XPs systems. On one the icon doesn't appear (and the UPS works perfectly) and on the other the icon does appear in the sys tray (the UPS also works perfectly) and I'd like to get rid of the icon. Why doesn't APC have an uncheck feature. I don't see how you can blame it on Windows, but you know better than I do.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Its dang annoying whether it's a bug or a feature. If I wanted to know its working I could set it to always show.