Firstly, I'm new here, so I'm sorry if I'm putting this in the wrong place. If I am, please don't eat me.
My problem concerns uTorrent Portable and VLC Portable. One of the main reasons for my using portable applications is that they're supposed to not leave traces on the host PC. However, that is not the case with these two. Now, this is indeed a small problem, but it's still a pain in the arse for me. My problem is that both of these supposably portable applications leave traces on the host computer, as demonstrated here:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8RlFYPuqqtzWVpzLTFFX1JiWFE
As you can see, both of these programs show up on the Notification Area Icons menu, which is not something I want. Could one of you lovely people please tell me how to remove them from the list completely, and (if possible) help me prevent them from ever showing up there in the first place?
Thanks in advance.
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All applications, even portable ones, leave some trace on the host computer due to the way Windows handles the files you run. Some of these cannot be prevented, and also cannot be removed once they are there except by Windows itself.
The PortableApps standard allows these traces, because they are created by Windows for every app that is run on the system. The traces you are indicating are recorded for every app that runs with a system tray icon, and as far as I know they cannot be prevented and cannot be removed.
So what you're saying is that there's absolutely no way to get rid of it? Surely Windows stores this somewhere in the registry...
Oh, by the way, thanks for the quick reply.
Okay, I take back saying they cannot be removed: I've found them in the registry. But they definitely can't be prevented as every time you run an app with a system tray icon it will appear in the list.
Also you can't remove select apps from the list, you can only clear every app from the list that isn't currently running, which (in my opinion) is worse than having a portable app kept in the list.
Thanks for trying. It doesn't really matter, it's just a bit annoying.
there is a way to tell Windows (XP at least) to NOT show certain icons in the Notifications Area, and a quick google search suggest that it can be done for later versions at well.
this seems to be a good page with instructions:
http://samanathon.com/windows-tip-hide-icons-in-the-notification-area/
I'm not sure if that is going to be the solution you are after though?
No, not really the solution I was looking for. Plus I'm using 7. But thanks anyway.