Unwanted 'Remove Hardware' icon

[GwydionM]

I have a desktop from Dell, and a Broadband link that I successfully moved from a previous machine. But for the last week, the machine has been putting up a 'remove hardware' icon for the Broadband. I could find no way to get rid of it. I checked my connection, which seemed fine. I then went through the procedure and restarted to get my link back. Which also got the icon back.

Currenltly it is lurking in the 'less used' section of the icon tray. Does anyone understand this? And is there any way to tell it that the offer is unwanted?

 

[soaplover]

Double click on it and report to us what exactly is in there .

//Soaplover

 

[GwydionM]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I have a box saying 'Safely Remove Hardware' and a line for Alcatel Speed Touch.

No option to say 'I'm quite happy with the hardware where it is', which I'd have expected.

Doing the check also ended my Broadband link, and I had to restart before it would work again.

 

[soaplover]

So...
don't worry about it. It should be like this .
Your broadband connection and software
has installed itself as a removable hardware device.
It's the same thing with usb devices and external
harddrives firewire stuff.

//Soaplover

 

[linney]

See if there are any clues amongst this lot.



Hide inactive icons (Always Hide) is the only known way. I think.

http://www.windows-help.net/WindowsXP/howto-07.html

298504 - HOWTO: Avoid Unsafe Removal Dialog Box

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;298504&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

http://www.google.com/search?source...e=UTF-8&q="Safely+Remove+Hardware"+windows+xp

http://groups.google.com/groups?sou...e=UTF-8&q="Safely+Remove+Hardware"+windows+xp

 

[bcastner]

What is the "broadband link" you moved? If it is an internal ADSL modem, PCI-based, there is something wrong. If it connects as a removable device through USB or some such connection, the icon from XP should be there.

Hidden in linney's link is the advice that you can only hide it, if it is hide-able, with setting the Icon value to "Never display" under the Task Bar properties sheet.

If it ignores your setting, and it is truely not a removable device, advise use further.

 

[gpalmer711]

I have the exact same Broadband modem on my XP system and also have the entry in Safely Remove Hardware. It is just because the modem is USB Modem. As both Linney and bcastner said use XP's function to hide icons.

Greg Palmer

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Any feed back is appreciated.

 

[Stumpy02000]

I right clicked and deleted the icon. It did not remove the software.
YaY!!

 

[GwydionM]

I ignored the stray icon and eventually it stopped appearing. This may be the best answer unless you know exactly what's happening on a system.

 

[bcastner]

Xp will eventually "clean your desktop" by default. I personally do not find this a good feature.

You should check that programs you have not used for awhle, or icons that to XP are "inactive" are not hidden from you by looking at your Toolbar properties.

To be fair to XP, this also allows you to customize whether they appear again or not, and it is the capability that this thread addresses to remove annoying icons, and hopefully, as a next step, preserve icons that do not annoy you (as well as desktop icons).