1302. Hide the clock from the taskbar in Windows

I normally display a large number of application icons on my Windows Task Bar, and I’m running out of space. I don’t really need to display the clock down there. Is there some way to turn off the display of the clock and other icons in the lower right-hand corner of the Task Bar?

Windows gives you complete control over what appears in the lower-right corner of the Task Bar (that area is called the System Tray). To get started, right-click on the Task Bar itself (not on one of the icons or the clock, however). Select Properties from the context menu that appears. On the dialog box that appears, next to the Notification area prompt, click the Customize button. To change the display of the clock, click the link at the bottom titled Turn system icons on or off. Selecting this option provides a list of various system items you can control, including the clock. You can select to show or hide the clock (and other system items) here. You can also control the display of icons for volume, power, network, and others.

Once you have removed various icons, you’ll have room for more stuff on the Task Bar, and Windows offers the option to display various menus there, as well. We like to add the Desktop menu to the Task Bar, so we can see a list of all the items on the desktop without having to minimize all the running applications to clear the desktop. To do this, right click on the Task Bar again, but this time select Toolbars instead of Properties. From the list of available tool bars, select Desktop. Now you can click that menu to display a list of all the items on your desktop at any time. Take some time to work through the various options to see how they change your Windows experience—you may find some of the options useful!