Action Center is Microsoft’s attempt at replacing the notification systems of previous years. Rather than the old method of a balloon popping up every ten seconds, the Action Center will queue less important notifications, only bringing the most vital to the user’s attention. This is a much improved system, and just another great improvement Windows 7 brings to the table.

There is a downside however, that being the always present pesky notification area icon. There is absolutely no standard dialog or option to get rid of this icon. The only way to permanently remove this icon is through the Group Policy Editor. Doing so is quite simple.

Disabling Notification Center:

   1: [Run]

   2:     gpedit.msc

   3: [Browse to]

   4:     User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Start Menu and Taskbar

   5: [Select and Enable]

   6:     Remove the Action Center icon

And it’s as easy as that! You may or may not need to logout and login for the changes to take affect. The nice thing is that it is just as easy to restore the icon if you ever need to.