Enable or Disable Windows Update Status icon in System Tray on Windows 11/10

If you want to disable Windows Update Status icon in the system tray on Windows 11 or Windows 10, here is how to do that. It is possible to enable or disable this icon using Windows Settings, and Registry Editor. Earlier, you could right-click on the icon and hide it from there. However, as that method is no longer available, you could use Windows Settings or Registry Editor to get it done.

Microsoft added a new feature to the Windows operating system which notified the users when there was a new update pending restart to get installed. In this, a new Windows Update icon popped up in the Notification area of the Taskbar notifying the user that they should either restart their computer or if any issues have occurred in downloading or installing the Windows Updates. However, if you want to disable this notification, you can do so.

Enable or Disable Windows Update Status tray icon

We are going to take a look at 3 methods that will show you how to enable or disable Windows Update Status icon in the Notification Area of the Windows 11/10 taskbar:

1. Hide the Windows Update Status icon.
2. Enable or Disable Windows Update Status icon using Windows Settings.
3. Enable or Disable Windows Update Status icon using the Registry Editor.

1] Hide the Windows Update Status icon

This is a very simple method to follow.

Just right click on the Windows Update Status icon and select Hide for now.

It will temporarily hide the Windows Update Status icon.

2] Enable or Disable Windows Update Status icon using Windows Settings

If you are using Windows 11, follow these steps:

1. Open Windows Settings.
2. Go to Personalization > Taskbar > Other system tray icons.
3. Find the Windows Update Status icon.
4. Toggle the respective button.

However, if you use Windows 10, follow these steps:

Open the Windows 10 Settings App.

Navigate to the following path: Personalization > Taskbar.

From the right-side panel, select Select which icons appear on the taskbar.

From the list, you can either toggle Windows Update Status to either enable or disable the icon.

Toggling it on enables the icon whereas toggling it off disables it,

3] Enable or Disable Windows Update Status icon using the Registry Editor

Open the Windows Registry Editor.

Navigate to the following path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings

Look for the DWORD named as TrayIconVisibility.

If it is not present create it.

• If you set its value to 0, it will disable the Windows Update Status icon for all users.
• In case you delete it, it will enable the Windows Update Status icon for all users.

How do I enable or disable system tray icons?

To enable or disable system tray icons in Windows 11/10, open the Windows Settings panel first. Then, switch to the Personalization tab and click on the Taskbar menu. Next, find the Other system tray icons and expand the menu. Here you can find an option called Hide icon menu. You need to toggle the respective button to turn it off or on. Apart from that, you can also expand the System tray icons section as well and turn on or off a specific icon.

How do I manage the system tray in Windows 11/10?

To manage the system tray in Windows 11 or Windows 10, you can open the Windows Settings panel first. Then, go to Personalization > Taskbar. Here you can see two options – System tray icons and Other system tray icons. You need to expand both options to enable or disable a specific icon as per your requirements.

I hope you found this guide useful.