The System Tray displays icons for system tray applications that are running on your computer. For example, MSN Messenger places an icon in the System Tray that you can use to access the application.

If you never use the System Tray, you may be interested in a registry hack that lets you disable it.

1. Click Start and click Run.
2. Type regedit.exe and click OK.
3. Navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer. If you cannot find the key, you will have to create it using the File, New, Key command.
4. Create a new DWORD value in the key. From the File menu, point to new, and click DWORD value.
5. Type NoTrayItemsDisplay and press Enter.
6. Double click the new DWORD value and enter a value of 1.
7. Exit the Registry Editor.

You will need to log off your computer for the changes to take effect. If you want to enable the System Tray, delete the DWORD value you created.