Hide Notification Area....

To hide the notification area for the current user:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer
3. Right-click an empty space in the right pane and select New > DWORD Value
4. Name the new value NoTrayItemsDisplay
5. Double-click the value NoTrayItemsDisplay and change the Value data to 1
6. Close the registry editor
7. Log off, or restart Windows for the changes to take effect

Only the time & date will still be displayed. To reverse, change the value of NoTrayItemsDisplay to 0, or delete it.

To hide the notification area for all users repeat these steps under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer

In Windows XP Professional, you can also accomplish the above using Group Policy Editor.

1. Click Start, Run and type GPEDIT.MSC
2. Navigate to this path:
=> User Configuration
==> Administrative Templates
===> Start Menu and Taskbar
3. Set "Hide the notification area" to Enabled