How to clean up the notification area

As a result of "final's" excellent find, I have brought this up to date.

Over time, the notification area becomes cluttered with items you have installed, and do not wish to have in the "Notification area"

You can return the area to its original state quite simply.
For those who like the fun of doing things manually (PLEASE BACKUP YOUR REGISTRY BEFORE ATTEMPTING MODS - WE ALL MAKE TYPOS)

1.Open Regedit
2. In regedit, scroll down to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify
3. In the right pane, highlight both IconStreams and PastIconsStream.
4. Right click on these two and click Delete.
5. Click Yes for the confirmation prompt.
6. Close regedit.
7. Open the Task manager and, in the processes tab, stop, and then restart explorer.exe. This step is very important!
8. Logoff and logon, or restart the computer to apply the changes.

You will find you will then have to customise the icons again to make them work to your own specification

For the lazy guys.
Just Unpack the attached. There are two .exes. One for 32Bit and another for 64Bit. Run the one appropriate to your OS. Afterwards you may still have to hide or unhide the remaining icons, depending on your own choice..

Thanks for the article Dave

Just checking, will this remove all tray icons (other than default), or does it simply clear the old icons that can sometimes remain after uninstallation of software?

The simpler way to do this is to use CCleaner. When you open the program, check the list under Advanced and select the Tray Notification Cache. Then Run CCleaner.

To see the results right away:
1) Start Task Manager
2) Select Processes and select Explorer.exe
3) End this Process > you will see your toolbar disappear, don't panic
4) Still in the Processes tab, Select File, New Task (Run...)
5) Type in: Explorer.exe
6) Your Toolbar will reappear without any Icons at all! Again, don't panic, some will start re-appearing right away like your volume icon and others will once you start a program that places an icon in the notification area

No. It only removes the third party icons from software installed since the original OS installation.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify
its missing

i cant find it in my registry.. has anyone any idea why?

This is quite an old fix, but still works.
However, I finally noticed that, whilst you have typed out the correct path in you post, your registry path is incorrect. Try again
But. A word of advise. I have twice posted this as an undesirable bug, to MS, but they say it is the programmers who are at fault, by insisting on placing their products in the notification area, without the option. You will find that it will quickly build up with unwanted items again.

thank you!
now i found it.

bevore you replied i tried this:
http://www.itsamples.com/notification-area-cleaner.html

hope it did not any harm

No. I have just had a look at it. It does the same thing as running the reg but also adds the explorer.exe operation. Nice.