Remove Custom Notifications information in Windows

Not many Windows users now what the Custom Notifications are or where one could take a look at the elements hidden there. Microsoft describes Custom Notifications as the way in Windows to display active and urgent notifications. These icons show if you have new mail for instance.

The real problem that arises is that past icons are kept there as well which means that everyone can access these information which could be a privacy problem.

Custom Notifications can be accessed by right-clicking the taskbar and choosing Properties from the menu. Click on the Customize button next to the Hide inactive icons entry to see all active and past entries in there - you might be surprised about the amount of icons listed there.

Microsoft does not offer an elegant way to clean past Custom Notifications items which is why I would recommend the Open Source software Past Icons Flusher which cleans all past icons when executed.

The software has a size of only 19K and can be executed from any location, no installation needed.