One the “up arrow” – highlighted by the yellow box – expands and contracts the Notification area. We have highlighted a couple of features. When it has been expanded you can (generally) see icons of (some) programs currently running in the background including some that start with Windows.Ībove: The expanded Notification area. The up-arrow (highlighted by us in a red square) expands the Notification area. Here’s a picture:Ībove: The unexpanded Notification area – Windows 10. The best way to define it is that it’s the area of your taskbar that contains the clock. Back in the days of Windows 9x and even XP it was referred to as the “System tray”. And we are going to show you how to do that…īut first, let’s define the Notification area. So, in order to control the size of the Notification area and the icons that appear on it, you need to take control of the Windows 10 Notification area. Unlike the taskbar, icons in the Notification area can’t be removed by right-clicking and choosing “Unpin from taskbar” from the menu.

We’ve gotten emails recently from people using Windows 10 who have discovered that the Notification area has expanded to cover a great deal of the taskbar.

Windows 10 Tip: The Notification Area and How to Take Control of It