Remove the Microsoft Security Essentials icon

I've been using Microsoft Security Essentials on Windows 7 for sometime now and so far I don't have a bad word to say about it.

I would like to permanently remove the MSE icon from the task bar and pop-up box, though I would still like to be informed when it detects a threat, etc.

Solution 1:

Check out PS Tray Factory (free for 30 days)

This will allow you to permanently hide the icon for MSE and it works under Windows 7 (I use it myself). It is clever enough to know when an icon is simply changing, so you do not have to tell it to hide all the different variations, i.e. protected, scanning, problem detected, etc.

Here it is on my own computer. As you can see, the icon is no longer present but you will still get the important popups.

Note that the icon for PS Tray Factory can easily be removed by unticking a tick box in the settings.

Solution 2:

Right click on the notifications area and select Properties >> Select Customize notification icons

Uncheck Always show all icons and notifications in the taskbar

You can select from the combo box next to each program whether you want to Hide icon and notification, Show notifications only or Show icon and notifications.

Solution 3:

When you say "hide the tray icon", do you mean place it in the hidden icon area, or permanently remove the tray icon?

I am running MSE on Windows 7 64-bit, and have MSE set to "Only show notifications", and the icon is "hidden" in the pop up area: