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Safely Remove Hardware Icon

R

rky60

Golden Member
Just installed a Linksys Etherfast USB Cable modem, there's an icon next to my connection icon. It's labled "Safely Remove Hardware" and if i double click it it'll bring up a window to remove my USB Cable Modem. I had problems with the Modem at first, kept rebooting my puter, until i called Linksys and they emailed me the WinXP drivers for the USB. But even after installing the correct drivers (doesn't reboot anymore) that icon is stilll there.

Connection seems fine, all tests i've run look good. Is that icon there for a reason?

Thanks for any help

K7S5A Mobo
WinXP

 
It's probably just there so it can tell the OS and any apps using the modem to let go of it so they don't act up when you disconnect it.
 
Ok, thank you 🙂 I submitted it to Microsoft Tech support to, they'll probably say the same thing. Everything seems fine 🙂
 
Any "removable" device that you plug in will usually show up there. I think my USB Umax scanner is the only device that doesn't pop that up. Since your "network" is dependent on that device being there, WinXP wants to be told to shut down networking before you disconnect it. Don't think it has anything to do with other apps, just the OS itself. For storage media with external readers, WinXP wants to make sure that all data has been written from the cache before you unplug it. With storage, it's best to "safely" remove it, with a network adapter it probably really doesn't make any difference, WinXP will just "lose" the network the same as if you disconnected a cat5 cable from a NIC.
 
Yep, same thing MS said after an hour of watchin the Tech chat screen..lol

Thx guys 🙂

Shopuld be a way of gettin rid of it tho
 
There is a way to "hide" it. Right click the taskbar and go to Properties. Check the "Hide Inactive Icons" option, and customize it. You can select the Safely Remove Hardware item to be hidden at all times. However this might not be recommended, since there may be times it's important to use it (like with removable storage like a Flash card reader or external drive). Plus other things might get "hidden" at times that you don't want hidden. I really don't like the hiding option.
 
Icons that sit on the Tray usually belong to Programs that are loaded at StartUp.

There is a little free program, called StartUp. It lets you see and manage all the entries in the Win Startup Process. The nice thing about it, you can Check or Uncheck entries without Installing or Uninstalling.

StartUP Page.

Use this proggie, and uncheck the loader for the USB thing. Restart the computer, and see what will take place. If the Icon is gone and every thing work well leave this way. Otherwise recheck the loader of the Icon.
 
JackMDS: I think nearly everything about that post is wrong.

A) WinXP has a utility called "msconfig" which allows you to see all the apps that load upon startup (either being in the Startup folder or the Run sections of the Registry) and check or uncheck them to prevent them loading on the next reboot. This is similar to the same utility that comes with Win9x (but not with Win2k).

B) The "USB thing" isn't being loaded by any application on startup, it is being detected by WinXP when it is plugged in (or upon boot if it's plugged in during the boot process). The Safely Remove Hardware icon isn't generated by any applications being loaded, it is displayed anytime a removable storage device is attached to the system.

The only thing you got right is that most icons in the system tray (or "notification area" as Microsoft calls it now) are shown there due to an application running.
 
LOL, WOW, I am a veteran of two wars, and now again under attack!

You like MSconfig, I like the StartUp Gizmo.

Actually, I know a lot of people that like it better then MSconfig; it is much more flexible.

Give it a try, may be you would like it too.
 
I can disable a startup item, or enable it. That's all the functionality I need, and all that's intended with msconfig. Still doesn't apply to RKYeager's situation. Plus, if I usually edit the registry by hand, and that's usually to delete things. I've never run into a situation where I need to move a boot-load item from the Startup folder to one of the Registry Run keys or anything of that nature. They all work fine where they are, and it seems a bit anal to put time into that.

As for being a veteran: and?
 
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