Customizing Notifications in XP

Question

Under taskbar properties in Windows XP SP3, there is an option to customize the notification area. However, when I'm trying to customize the past items, I see that there are nearly 100 different items, the majority of them are programs which have been uninstalled ages ago.

How can I eliminate all the past items that are not installed on my computer and keep the ones that are installed on my computer?

Screenie: (there are nearly 100 items, mostly nonrelevant, in the Past Items section)

Answer 1

Click Start > Run > type regedit and click OK

Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\TrayNotify

Delete the IconStreams and PastIconsStream values.

Open Task Manager, click Processes tab, select Explorer.exe, then right click and End Process.

Still in Task Manager, click File, click New Task, type explorer, then click OK.