By Sophia | Last Updated
Apart from the icons of Internet Explorer, File Explorer, Volume, Network, Action Center which automatically exist on the taskbar of Windows 8/10/11 computer, you may also add some other icons of the frequently-used apps to the taskbar for convenience. And one day, you will find there are a lot of icons on the taskbar (see the following picture) and possibly have a desire to remove them. Hence, this text will show you how to remove icons from taskbar in Windows 8/10/11.
Video guide on how to remove icons from taskbar on Windows 8/10/11:
For your information, the app icons refer to the icons of IE, File Explorer and other apps manually added to the taskbar. And, in general, there are two ways to remove them.
Way 1: Directly delete them on taskbar.
Right-click an app icon (e.g. Calculator) on the desktop taskbar, and then select Unpin this program from taskbar to remove it.
Way 2: Remove them from Apps interface.
Step 1: On the Start Menu, right-tap any tile or blank space and choose All apps to open the Apps interface.
Step 2: Find and right-click the app (e.g. Internet Explorer) you would like to delete from the taskbar, and then select Unpin from taskbar on the lower left.
Two methods are illustrated in the following.
Method 1: Delete system icons by hiding them in Taskbar Properties.
Step 1: Open Taskbar Properties.
Right-tap any blank area on the taskbar and choose Properties in the context menu to open it.
Step 2: In the Taskbar Properties window, click Customize button and to move on.
Step 3: As the window of Notification Area Icons turns up, tap the down arrow beside the system icon you want to remove, select Hide icon and notifications in the list and click OK.
Method 2: Remove system icons by turning them off in Taskbar Properties.
Step 1: Turn on Taskbar Properties and open Notification Area Icons window according to the instruction above.
Step 2: Choose Turn system icons on or off to continue.
Step 3: After entering the window of System Icons, tap the down arrow behind a system icon to be deleted, select Off in the drop-down list and click OK to turn it off.
Finishing reading the above description, you can remove both the app icons and system icons on the taskbar of your Windows whenever you want to do that.
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