Thursday, July 2, 2009

Hide Live Messenger from the Windows 7 Start Menu Taskbar

I just wanted my Messenger to hide the way it did in Windows Vista and XP.

Right now, when you minimize Windows Live Messenger, it takes up a lot of space in your taskbar.

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So here’s a trick i found out when testing some code for Windows 7…

If you set the properties of an application to run as an older OS, it will allow the app to behave like it did in the “old” days.

So find your Messenger in your “Start Menu” and right click on it and select “Properties”

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Then from the Compatibility tab, set the mode to “Windows Vista”

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Make sure to Restart Messenger and you done.

Now when you close your messenger window, it will run the way it did in the background accessible from your notification area.

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The last thing you might want to do is tell Windows 7 to always show the icon so you have it always ready to go…

From the Control Panel, click Notification Area Icons and set the Windows Live Messenger to “Show icon and notifications”.

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Cheers

S.

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14 comments:

  1. UnknownJuly 8, 2009 at 9:22 PM

    Sorry, but this doesn't seem to work on Windows 7 RC as one of the two Windows Live icons insist on remaining on the taskbar.BTW, it seems impossible to exit Live Messenger without killing it using Task Manager. Is this intentional?

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  2. FazZ filmzJuly 8, 2009 at 10:17 PM

    Thanks Steve!This was annoying me for a while and your method worked fine on my version of W7 x64 RC

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  3. StevenJuly 8, 2009 at 11:39 PM

    "No name", make sure to restart Messenger. I will only retake on a restart.

    ReplyDelete
  4. JonathanAugust 26, 2009 at 8:07 PM

    Thanks for this tip Steven, this has been bugging me ever since I moved to Win 7!

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  5. HisanSeptember 14, 2009 at 5:11 AM

    Thanks S!!This was annoying the heck out of me!!! I kept maximizing it by mistake coz I have to work pretty fast on many applications simultaneously.Thanks again!!

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  6. GaselleApril 11, 2010 at 2:34 PM

    Many Many thanks for this simple little guide =D. I mostly hate Windows 7, and this was one of the many reasons why. Now if I can just find a way to get it to stop displaying a picture for every tab I have open under a taskbar tab when I accidentally hover for more than like one second on it...

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  7. ashh ♥May 15, 2010 at 11:42 PM

    yayy!! thankyou soooo muchh!! this thing annoys me so muchh. it is really annoying when you have parents hanging around and are like WHY ARE YOU ON MSN?!! and you are like-- BUT IM NOT!! SEE THE X!! OMIGOSH SILLY PERSON!! and they are like-- YES YOU ARE, I CAN SEEE IT DOWN THERE!! and you are like-- GRRR!! and yes. :3

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  8. houmanJune 5, 2010 at 12:40 PM

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  9. InggoJanuary 15, 2011 at 10:49 PM

    Thanks lots! Now that's one less window from the alt-tab list... haha!

    ReplyDelete
  10. JeffMarch 28, 2011 at 11:03 AM

    Perfect ! Thx a lot !

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  11. BobApril 27, 2011 at 9:34 AM

    Thnx! Worked just fine on W7 x64 Enterprise

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  12. abcJune 24, 2011 at 10:50 AM

    This is really saves some space in task bar.. thanks a lot...

    ReplyDelete
  13. RezaAugust 16, 2011 at 8:11 AM

    Thanks..

    ReplyDelete
  14. FranciscoSeptember 17, 2011 at 4:42 PM

    actually the solution was very easy, but without you guys
    i would never figure it out by myself


    Thanks

    ReplyDelete

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