I want to hide some application icon from notification area on taskbar permanently( i.e. not retrievable b y hide/unhide properties of Start Menu) which get displayed on starting the XP system but want that application remain active in the background.

Suggest what should I do to achieve this?

I want to hide some application icon from notification area on taskbar permanently( i.e. not retrievable b y hide/unhide properties of Start Menu) which get displayed on starting the XP system but want that application remain active in the background.

Suggest what should I do to achieve this?
Are the icons appearing in the "quick Start" area of the task bar or are they showing up in the "system Tray" area (the right side)? If you can't turn the icon off on the individual program property screen, you'll have to go to your "run" program (on the start menu) type in "msconfig" and on the "statrup" tab take the checkmark off the program that you want to hide. It won't automatically start at startup and it won't be running in the background but if you add it to your "Quick Start" list (at the bottom left in the task bar) it'll be available to you pretty quick.

Right click on the taskbar and select properties. In the notification area, check the box "hide inactive icons" Then click customize. In the drop down menu beside the icon you want to hide, you can select "always hide". See if that works.