Show or hide Safely Remove Hardware icon

You can restore missing or hide the Safely Remove Hardware icon from the Notification Area in Windows 11/10. We will talk about three methods using which you can show or hide the Safely Remove Hardware icon in Windows 11/10:

1] Hide the icon in Show hidden icons

After you plug in your USB Device, locate the Safely Remove Device icon in the System Tray in the bottom right corner of your screen. Now, click on that icon, hold it and move it to the left side where you see an arrow – and drop it into the Show hidden icons area. The icon will be hidden using the drag-and-drop method.

2] Using Windows Settings

Open Settings > Personalization > Taskbar.

On the right side panel, select the option that says Turn system icons on or off. Select the Safely Remove Hardware option and toggle it to be off.

3] Using a Batch file

Open Notepad and copy and paste the following code in it- Now, click on the File Menu and select Save as… Give any file name and add the extension .bat in the end. Save it in your preferred location. Now, create a shortcut for it. Open the Run box by hitting the WINKEY + R button combination.

Type in shell:startup to start configuring your current User Account’s Startup programs or type in shell:common startup to start configuring the Startup programs for all the User Accounts on that computer. Move that Shortcut file we just created to that folder. Reboot your computer and check if that hides the icon.

Safely remove hardware icon missing from notification area

If you can’t find the Safely Remove Hardware icon, then right-click on the taskbar and select Taskbar settings. Under Notification Area, choose Select which icons appear on the taskbar. Now scroll to Windows Explorer Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media and turn it On.

How do I get the Safely remove hardware icon back?

To get the Safely remove hardware icon back on Windows 11 Taskbar:

Right-click on Taskbar > Taskbar settings > Select Taskbar corner overflow to expand it.Next, scroll to Windows Explorer (Tooltip reads Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media) and turn it ON.If this doesn’t work, make sure the device has stopped all activity, like copying or syncing files. Select Start > Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Devices.Select More next to the device, and select Remove deviceYou may also check with the device manufacturer for new driver updates.

This post will help you if Safely Remove Hardware is not working.

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