Workaround to Hide and Minimize Windows Live Messenger Icon/Button to Notification Area (System Tray) in Windows 7
When running Windows Live Messenger, aka MSN Messenger of latest version (as installed Windows Live Essentials 2009) in Windows 7, the main Messenger Contact window, display picture, and all chat or conversation windows now have full fledged button or icon on Windows Taskbar, even when minimized, instead of placing main WLM Contacts window icon in system tray or notification area.

In previous Windows Vista, XP or Server operating system, Windows Live Messenger (MSN) Messenger will load itself into notification area, also known as system tray, which located at the far right end of Taskbar beside the clock, while the rest of the windows such as IM chat dialog box have their own Taskbar button when the windows are opened.
Windows 7 has removed the notification area icon for Windows Live Messenger though, thus the main button for Messenger window now appears in Taskbar, along side with all its conversation or chat windows. The Taskbar button icon won’t go away even when Messenger window is minimized. When mouse over the WL Messenger icon on Taskbar, the thumbnail preview may show two confusing Messenger’s windows, where one is actual WLM Contacts main window, and another is display picture (DP, which does not show if user clicks on ‘X’ button to close the main window).
It’s possible to instruct Windows Live Messenger to revert back to classic style, where its main window is represented by notification tray area icon. The hack is to run Windows Live Messenger in Windows Vista compatibility mode in Windows 7 in order to move WLM icon back to system tray.
- Exit Windows Live Messenger or MSN Messenger completely (Right click on WLM button/icon on Taskbar and select Exit).
- Go to Start Menu, locate the Windows Live Messenger shortcut.
Tip: It’s also possible to deal directly with the actual WLM program, msnmgsr.exe located in %ProgramFiles%\Windows Live\Messenger\ folder.
- Right click on the Windows Live Messenger shortcut or executable, and select Properties.

- Go to Compatibility tab.
- Tick the check box for Run this program in compatibility mode for under “Compatibility Mode”, and then select Windows Vista from the drop down list.

- Click OK.
- Run Windows Live Messenger.
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With the hack, Windows Live Messenger will minimize to system tray (notification area).
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November 24th, 2009 02:00
SWEET! Thansk my friend! I just got bananas on that stupid taskbar icon!
November 23rd, 2009 05:43
thanks for solving yet another of microsofts many flaws
November 22nd, 2009 14:35
That worked beautifully! Thanks. That was so annoying.
November 20th, 2009 23:31
Thanks for a quick and easy fix
November 20th, 2009 16:56
Thanks a lot! This works flawlessly.
November 19th, 2009 20:11
God. Finally!!!! Thanks a lot. It was driving me mad!!!!!!!
November 18th, 2009 14:34
An easy solution. Thank you.
November 16th, 2009 19:59
thank you!
November 16th, 2009 16:26
Thanks!! An annoyning issue solved.
November 15th, 2009 01:16
you sir are a legend
annoying the hell out of me too!
November 14th, 2009 15:44
Thank you so much! it was annoying the hell out of me ;D
November 14th, 2009 01:10
thanks a lot !!!!
November 12th, 2009 12:48
Yoooho, it works!
November 7th, 2009 06:26
I still have the problem. One of the 2 messenger windows is still on the taskbar. The other one is gone. Is it only me ? Any idea how to remove this ?
I think it’s the DP picture that make doesn’t make it to the tray.
I taught 7 was better than vista, it is I think but lot of work to be done to make it stable.
November 7th, 2009 06:12
every hack i’ve wanted for win7 points to ur website. Thanks man!
November 6th, 2009 16:55
Thanks a lot! Köszi:D
November 6th, 2009 06:03
Thanks Man! Nice Job!
November 6th, 2009 00:47
Thanks man! Somehow I had it in the notification area at one time and then it went back and it made me rage! Thanks!
November 5th, 2009 16:46
Excellent tip. Thank you so much
November 3rd, 2009 09:52
perfeito! funciona! obrigado!
November 3rd, 2009 03:54
Can not tell you how grateful I am for this, such an annoying ‘improvement’ by Windows. Thanks very much.
November 2nd, 2009 17:15
I agree with every one else i get down on my knees and thank you with everything i have. Finally it gone at last i thank you again.
November 2nd, 2009 03:31
That’s been bugging me for months. Thank you!
November 2nd, 2009 01:15
Excellent tip, thanks
November 1st, 2009 04:12
Couldn’t have been an easier solution. Thanks!
October 31st, 2009 05:25
You are a legend!
October 30th, 2009 18:29
Thanks! Windows7 is pretty good, but this was one of the most annoying things Ive expereienced about it so far.
October 30th, 2009 13:58
Thank you!
October 30th, 2009 04:54
Thank you very much, having two icons for one program was annoying thanks to you PROBLEMO SOLVED.
October 25th, 2009 08:56
Thanks a million. That has been bothering me for the last two days!
October 25th, 2009 03:10
Crazy how much something so small like that can bother you.
October 24th, 2009 23:05
That was driving me nuts. Thanks
October 24th, 2009 03:57
GREAT! thanks… I thought the new version was really lame, I definitely prefer it in the system tray
October 23rd, 2009 19:50
Thanks a lot for the tip.
October 23rd, 2009 18:57
Thanks for a nice and simple solution to a very annoying problem!
October 23rd, 2009 04:10
Another thans, you saved me biting my nails out.
October 20th, 2009 01:54
Another one say a BIG thanks for this solution! Was driving me nuts, keeping the program off rather than having that stupid thing in the taskbar!
Many thanks!
October 18th, 2009 04:57
As some of the others have already said. Thanks a lot!
October 15th, 2009 10:24
Wow! this is what i’m looking for, thank you.
October 11th, 2009 19:32
Thank you, great tip
October 11th, 2009 16:25
I love you.
October 10th, 2009 17:25
This tip saved my day
You rule!
-Markku
October 9th, 2009 19:28
Ty very much men.
I really needed this
October 9th, 2009 16:38
I received and installed my signature edition of windows 7 ultimate yesterday and I was really disappointed of many issues, especially this one, but I am glad to find a way to go around it, I hope this works for Windows live mail, which previously had the option to “Hide window when minimized”
Thanks
October 9th, 2009 11:23
This is really the most useful tip I’ve seen since I installed Windows 7. Now I need to find a way to disabled those taskbar thumbnails and be able to midle-click to close windows from the taskbar.
October 8th, 2009 05:54
Thank you very much.
I actually considered going back to vista coz of this…
October 7th, 2009 21:31
THANKS!
I was also getting the problem that pinning messenger to the start bar was causing multiple instances of messenger.exe to run. Now it’s back in my system tray I can unpin it!
October 7th, 2009 00:00
Micro$oft should be posting this workaround. Thanks for the share! I hated how it was always open, it should live in the tray.
October 5th, 2009 20:39
It’s good to know this tip, thanks.
October 4th, 2009 21:45
Just the info I needed! Thanks!
October 4th, 2009 19:03
THANKS !!!!
October 1st, 2009 23:07
[...] Kudos to Rick @ OW for finding this helpful blog post… "For any of you running Windows 7 and Live Messenger and are annoyed that it stays on the task bar now and not in the system tray, you can run it in Windows Vista Compatibility mode and it will behave like you are used to. Here are the instructions:" ~Rick http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/01/15/workaround-to-hide-and-minimize-windows-live-messenger-icon... [...]
September 29th, 2009 21:36
Wicked
Thanks man!!
September 29th, 2009 18:13
big!!
thanks man!
September 27th, 2009 15:58
I don’t like windows 7 GUI for many things like that but at least MSN will not bother me anymore. thanks for the workaround
September 26th, 2009 19:26
Thank you very much! I just installed Windows 7 yesterday, and this thing with msn was really a killer-factor! happy to know there’s an easy workaround ^^
September 24th, 2009 20:43
Brilliant, thanks!
September 24th, 2009 10:02
Great stuff! i have searched the whole internet for this solution
September 24th, 2009 08:26
Thanks! I was about to uninstall the program because of this issue, but then I read this.
September 23rd, 2009 02:47
WOW, great job! THank you very much!
September 18th, 2009 10:07
Thanks so much!!! You rock!
September 18th, 2009 04:05
Thank you soo much…
September 16th, 2009 20:45
Great, Thanks man!
September 10th, 2009 17:20
Thanks … you are the man !!
September 9th, 2009 17:20
it works. simple modification but i would never come up with this idea.
September 4th, 2009 22:36
Thank you thank you thank you.
September 2nd, 2009 10:04
thank you very much. It really was a big HEADACHE!
With this tip, Win7 is back in the game.
Greetings from venezuela.
August 29th, 2009 03:45
Thank you very much, it’s crazy this is necessary if the first place!
August 26th, 2009 23:53
Thanx
August 26th, 2009 21:28
Very nice tip
Thanks and cheers:-)
August 25th, 2009 10:59
thanks.
And it’s incomprehensible why Windows live team didn’t fix it.
August 24th, 2009 01:00
AweSome DUde THANKS XD
August 23rd, 2009 23:53
Thank you very much!!!
August 14th, 2009 13:26
Look at your system memory now. It’s inflated about 60mb memory now.
August 13th, 2009 01:50
Gracias, vaya que si me ayudaste a quitar un dolor de cabeza…
August 11th, 2009 02:16
Nice, but immediately after reboot messenger stops working .. at all. :f
August 9th, 2009 22:03
Thanks! This was annoying me.
August 9th, 2009 14:26
THANK YOU!!!
This was one of my biggest annoyance in win 7 and removal of classic start bar.
But im so glad i found this, to the person that discovered this your an absolute genius.
August 9th, 2009 02:38
[...] impostando la modalità su Windows Vista. Maggiori informazioni sono disponibili in questo post. Technorati Tag: Windows,Live Published sabato 8 agosto 2009 20.38 by Marco Minerva Filed under: [...]
August 7th, 2009 16:32
Many thanks man, this was bugging me big time.
August 7th, 2009 15:36
Hahaha not really a hack but its a funny way to get it back to normal.
August 6th, 2009 04:27
Thank you.My taskbar is much tidier now
August 6th, 2009 03:46
Thank you for the helpful tip
August 3rd, 2009 09:38
heeeeeeyyyy sweet dude!! it works!!! love ya man!! I really miss this way to find messenger in notification area!! u rock!! xD
July 31st, 2009 02:38
Thx! this worked!
July 28th, 2009 13:34
Glad I looked it up, this DID help, and the problem did bug me. Still, I wouldn’t call it a hack though, because it isn’t.
July 16th, 2009 04:27
This bugged me for a while so I googled it. I’m glad I found this answer. Thanks.
July 10th, 2009 03:47
nice! That’s it was looking for
July 7th, 2009 10:10
GRACIAS! era un problema que tenia!
muchisimas gracias(:
July 5th, 2009 18:30
Comodo Firewall updated and now this trick doesn’t work anymore ib Build 7100 x64
July 5th, 2009 00:17
Thanks. BTW, the same goes with Windows Live mail too. It hides when you run it in compatibility mode.
July 1st, 2009 12:53
THANK U SOOO MUCH>. OMG>. THANK U SOOOOOO MUCH WOW
July 1st, 2009 05:45
Does anyone has a problem with compatipility mode and http links in chat window? Icons are in right place but when i send or recieve links with http, then they are not links but just text. When compatipility mode is turned off then links work but with any compatibility mode it will suck.. Please help.
June 22nd, 2009 00:39
I can’t thank you enough. This was positively annoying as hell. Can’t thank you enough for this!
June 21st, 2009 05:34
A lot of stupid people here, this works flawlessly. If you can’t manage to change the option then do the world a favor and don’t have any children. As a bonus you could also jump under the train or something.
June 14th, 2009 08:19
Thank a lot… been looking for this solution for a while.
June 10th, 2009 15:16
Thank you SO MUCH. I actually sent angry emails about this to msn, because I was so pissed.
Does anyone know if there’s a workaround so that opening your hotmail can open in a browser other than IE? (I fucking hate IE, love firefox)
June 9th, 2009 19:12
Simple and great post!
thanks a lot…
May 29th, 2009 19:22
GARH! Thanks buddy for sharing this tip….
May 27th, 2009 17:53
Thank you very much… this thing was anoying me, every time I would minimize my programs the dang thing would maximize…
May 25th, 2009 15:39
Great tip
I have windows7 (build 7000) and the original tip above workes fine with me.
Thanks very much.
May 21st, 2009 04:08
well done )
May 20th, 2009 06:19
This kind of craps annoys the hell out of me!
Is this what MS are spending their valuable time on fiddling around with?
“Hey! let’s see how much we can annoy our users! lets make this crappy window fatter than a BigMac, Yeah that’s great!”
Fucking morons I’d like to kick your nerdy asses!
May 17th, 2009 20:44
Ah thankyou!! That was my only one of contention.
May 17th, 2009 13:44
THANKYOUUUUUUUUU
thats like the only problem ived had with windows 7 XD
May 17th, 2009 00:41
iiiiiiiiiiiii loooooooooooove you
that made me angrey but now
im enjoying my win 7
yoooooooobiii
May 14th, 2009 23:46
THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH FINALY I CAN START USING WINDOWS 7 NORMALY
i hope microsoft will make a button or fix when the final version of windows 7 arrives
May 13th, 2009 16:35
Thank you so much.
I appriciate it.
May 12th, 2009 23:55
haha it worked
thanx for this! its been annoying the hell out of me for days!!!!
May 12th, 2009 06:16
Thanks a ton, that was really pissing me off, I almost didn’t want to use it anymore. A appreciate it!
May 9th, 2009 23:55
Thanks a bunch.
I would have never though compativility mode would fix this problem.
May 3rd, 2009 00:47
[...] Windows 7 RC Installed I updated my primary machine to Windows 7 RC yesterday. One thing I had to search for and update was Messenger settings so it would minimize to the tool tray instead of the task bar. Here’s the tip. [...]
April 19th, 2009 17:29
same problem like you matt…:(
April 7th, 2009 03:18
Thank you sooooo much!
Was really pissing me off, popping up everytime I minimized everything. In the end decided to google it and you answered my summons!
March 26th, 2009 04:48
I have the same problem as Mavamaarten.
It works the first time i change the compatability mode. But after restarting or simply turning off one evening and on the next. It no longer starts automatically.. Nor does it allow me to open the program manually… I have tried changing it back to run on Windows 7. But nothing happens.
March 21st, 2009 02:24
Great! I was also very annoyed by this!
March 18th, 2009 04:18
Awesome…2 icons in the task bar was so annoying..
You made my day
March 16th, 2009 03:19
Hey my love iam just trying if i can go through .love you.
February 26th, 2009 13:44
Brilliant! thankyou, it was annoying the sh*t out of me!!
i did it with the executabl itself and not the shortcut, if that helps anyone above.
February 26th, 2009 05:54
You are quite the genius friend. Thanks for the great information.
February 24th, 2009 21:41
Thank you very much
February 18th, 2009 21:46
THANKS DUDE!
this worked on the built 7022!
thanks again man,
i apreshate it!
February 17th, 2009 04:09
Running Build 7022. Went directly to file and told it to run in vista compatibility mode and it works great. It’s funny how that the way to fix many things in 7 is to change the compatibility mode. Thank you.
February 9th, 2009 03:51
Great post! This is the only “problem” I was having after a Windows 7 install today. This should be a very popular post.
Thanks a bunch.
January 31st, 2009 11:23
thnx alot dude
January 30th, 2009 19:31
[...] to: Workaround to Hide and Minimize Windows Live Messenger Icon/Button to Notification Area (System Tray… Posted: Friday, January 30, 2009 12:31 PM by Alessandro Teglia Filed under: Beta, Vista, Windows [...]
January 28th, 2009 02:39
Thank you very much… this thing was anoying me, every time I would minimize my programs the dang thing would maximize… once again thanks
January 22nd, 2009 04:48
so has anyone come up with a working fix besides running in comp mode? doesn’t work for many people from what i see
January 18th, 2009 18:27
Yes, that is what I want! Thank’s a lot!
January 18th, 2009 12:56
to wasscp
yes i did apply that patch to extend windows 7 and remove watermarks/build, etc. sounds like something it did is causing the error
anyone come up with another solution aside from rerunning patch and unpatching
matt
January 17th, 2009 09:47
This worked like a charm! Thank you, I now have my taskbar back!
January 15th, 2009 18:56
@mavmaarten
you wouldnt have happened to use that patch to get pluspatch for windows 7 did you…
im asking because i applied this *workaround* first shot and it worked beautifully…
soon as i tinkered with the pluspatch 5 (remove watermarks and annoying feedback link) i also recieved *unable to initialize* (unticking compatibility mode) was the only option to get msn running again…
sucks that annoying MSN on my taskbar is enough to make me stop using it easily.. guess i gotta find an alternate way ot connecting to msn
trillium maybe…
January 15th, 2009 17:37
Same here. Doesn’t start at all in compatibility mode.
January 15th, 2009 16:56
The Program Files folder method described above worked perfectly for me.
Brilliant solution. Well worked out!
Thanks,
Neil.
January 15th, 2009 14:12
Yep. Uninstalled my previous version, then installed the latest version straight from Microsoft’s website, before I made my previous post. I’ve got version 14.0.8050.1202.
I’ve tried Vista compat mode, and XP compat mode. I’ve tried it with the shortcut, and the actual .exe file. I get the same error every time.
Its kind of annoying that they’ve made this change to the way the program works in Windows 7. An older version I had, before I was told by the program that I needed to update, actually went to the system tray.
January 15th, 2009 10:10
Have you all try to install the latest version?
January 15th, 2009 08:16
Matt,
The same thing happens to me; the exact same thing. Does anyone know of any other way to get it to the system tray instead of on the taskbar?
January 15th, 2009 02:18
this doesn’t work at least not for me – it pops up an error and says messenger has stopped working – close program. then application error failed to initialize properly (0xc0000005) blah blah – UAC set off and i’ve tried changing everything to default as well as setting compatability to other OS version – nothing works – anyone has same issue?
January 15th, 2009 02:12
Horrible.
I HATE the way it works, and when i try this thingy, WLM9 stops working, i can’t run it at all