Disable the annoying “Get Windows 10” system tray icon

When the “Get Windows 10” system tray icon first appeared I thought, ok, its a notification to enable a person to register to be notified of the upcoming release of Windows 10. It makes sense that Microsoft wants to notify users of its availability and to have them upgrade.

So you click on the icon and go through the process of registering, and the icon seems to disappear. But then it comes back. And you are like “What? Didn’t I already register?”. You did. But I guess that doesn’t matter to Microsoft.

So, knowing that you can easily customize which system tray icons appear in the system tray, you go into the system tray’s Customize settings and choose to “Only show notifications” for the GWX icon, which is what it is called.

But then you realize that, only hours later, the damn thing is back. So you disable it yet again, and back it comes. Total FBS! What gives MS?

Fortunately, tenforums.com has a good post on how to really disable the Get Windows 10 icon. I personally chose method 3 which involves downloading and running a small registry patch to permanently disable it. There is also a patch to re-enable it. Once Windows 10 is released I will re-enable it at some point, but to be irritated by that stupid, annoying icon until then – no way!

Given how many millions of zombified Windows PC’s there are in the world which form parts of botnets and spew out countless spam and malicious attacks, its understandable that Microsoft wants to be a little aggro with getting people to upgrade. But I would think that once you’ve clicked the icon and registered, it would leave you alone until – wait for this! – Windows 10 is actually released and available!