Safely Remove Hardware

If you work a lot with different USB devices, you probably use the "safely remove hardware" icon quite a bit. Am I right? You know, you're supposed to safely remove a USB device by clicking on the icon in your taskbar and stopping the whole process instead of just unplugging it without any warning. So, what if you lost that icon? Then what are you supposed to do?

Well, if you've recently lost your safely remove hardware icon, there is one thing you can do to try and find it again. It may just be hidden and you can change that with a couple quick clicks. Go to your taskbar and right click on any open area. Choose Properties and make sure you're under the Taskbar tab. Look toward the bottom under the Notification Area and uncheck the choice that says "Hide inactive icons." Click OK when you're done.

This will bring back several icons that you maybe haven't seen in awhile. You can choose to have the safety icon shown all the time or you can hide it again if you want, now that you know where to find it when you need it. Also, keep in mind that this icon doesn't always show up for every USB device you plug in to your computer. If you are using items that are known as "permanently connected" devices (printer, Webcam, etc.), the icon may not show up when you plug them in.

The icon tends to only show up when there's a chance of the data flow between the device and your computer being interrupted during your use (such as a flash drive). So, you can either keep it hidden, unhidden or just look for it when you're using other types of devices. It'll be there when you need it, just like a trusty ol' friend!

~ Erin