How to hide an icon

[Spartan]

How can I hide the MSN Messanger icon that appears in the lower right sys tray? I use the program from time to time but would like to hide the icon and access it from the start bar.

-Spartan

[Miz]

The icon's appearance in the system tray indicates it's running so the solution is to stop it from loading on startup. Sometimes it works to go into Messenger's Preferences and uncheck "load when Windows starts" or however that option is worded. Also uncheck "Allow to run in the background" which will allow it to remain loaded even when you think you've shut it down. Messenger is nortoriously difficult to dissuade from loading on startup so if that works, count yourself fortunate.

Also, if you use Outlook Express, by default it loads Messenger when it starts so make sure that option is unchecked in OE's Tools>Options>General tab.