New Notification Icons To "Show Icon And Notifications"

Hello,

So Windows 8.1's default option, to what I have noticed, is that any newly ran program that has a Taskbar notification icon (near the clock) is set to "Only show notifications".
I want to change those settings to make any newly ran program to always "Show icon and notifications".
Is there a setting in the registry that would let me change this?

The reason why I want to do this is because a certain program procrastinates about saving the "Show icon and notifications" setting. This has been an identified bug for that program, so it will eventually be fixed.

Yet I thought of this idea that I just talked about in that first paragraph and thought that this is something that I really would prefer:

Suppose you somehow accidentally got some hidden malware that has a notification icon, yet Windows' setting is to automatically "Only show notifications" and not show the icon by default on the Taskbar. You don't usually click the Up Arrow button to view the hidden notification icons. So this means that this malware is just sittin' there hanging out it's all good, right? No.. no it's not... Someone please mention this to Microsoft so they can update this which could qualify as a security concern.

Thanks

I suppose what you ask could be done if you were able to get into the code to change the default for that function but I would think it would take someone with fairly advanced skill and an in-depth knowledge of the OS but in all my years of computing I have never heard of malware presenting itself with a notification icon. It would be like holding up a flag saying HELLO, I am here. Typically malware wants to hide itself. A PUP may contain a notification feature but those are generally not considered malicious in nature.

Daily scanning with a scanner like Malwarebytes will notify the user of most all malware and PUPs and automatically remove if set to do so.

Thanks for the reply,

So you're saying that this feature is a hard built-in feature for Windows, and doesn't refer to the registry?

(And about the malware story, I'm just saying that there are actually some people who don't really look at the hidden notification icons, where if some PUP wants to take advantage of being open there, it can easily do so without me really looking there. And you know how there's so many different types of malware out there.. I'm sure one like I was talking about exists somewhere out there.)

pepanee said:

Thanks for the reply,

So you're saying that this feature is a hard built-in feature for Windows, and doesn't refer to the registry?

Click to expand...

Like I said, I would imagine it could be changed but certainly not something the average user and probably not even an advanced user could change.

It is the users responsibility to know what is on their system and what gets downloaded. Many malicious programs can be sneaky and usually get in with the users permission in a download so great caution must be taken when permission is granted to download anything. Windows can't protect people from themselves.

If you feel very strongly about this I think the best you could do would be to bring this up with Windows Support

I appreciate the reply, thank you.

It doesn't really bother me as a security concern, I do my best to make sure to never download malware. I just thought that this 'could' actually qualify as a small security loophole. I'm just stating what I observe.

Yet about the icon notification settings: I prefer it if new programs, which are installed by me, to actually automatically make themselves visible to me, unless I decide to choose if they should be in my sight of vision or not. That's the main point that I'm trying to get to I guess, you see what I'm saying?

Thanks for your replies, much appreciated.

Yes, I totally understand what you are saying but for every user that wants it one way there are likely as many users that that wouldn't want it that way. So it's a balancing act for sure.

I think the most important thing is to educate the end user. There is a lot more to using a computer and accessing the internet than most people think.

Are there any other suggestions of programs/registry tweaks that I can do for this?

So there is no way to make Windows automatically force-show (and never hide, unless I tell it to) any new notification icons in the Taskbar?

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for but check it out: Right-click the taskbar > Properties > Notification Area > Customize > Always show all icons and notifications on the taskbar (make sure this box is checked) It is located in lower-left corner.

Notification Area Icons - Hide or Show System Icons and Notifications - Windows 7 Help Forums

It's close to what I want. I still want some icons to be always hidden (like the Network icon & the Safely Remove Hardware icon). I want to keep those icons, and a few more, hidden at all times, yet I want new icons to always show themselves next to the digital clock down there and stay visible, unless I say it's okay for them to hide. (Because you know how new icons tend to hide themselves over a short period of time)