I've searched for an answer to this one and I haven't found one yet. How do i remove a single item from Windows' System tray? I'm targeting Windows XP.

Edit: This is not about preventing items from starting up. I want the program to keep running, I just need another script/program to remove the first one's entry from system tray.

Second Edit: One approach that I can think of is to try to hide the intended app by modifying registry keys. On several test machines I've found some registry entries that match the System tray information at

HKEY_USERS\something-that-looks-like S-1-5-21-682003330-1563985344-725345543-1003\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\TrayNotify

with BalloonTip, IconStream and PastIconsStream containing systray information. The important one is IconStream.

On other machines, these are found at

hkey_classes_root/local/setting/software/microsoft/windows/currentversion/TrayNotify

I'm quite sure there's no danger in changing those specific registries, but I don't know how to write code for that. Can anyone help me with the code and with confirming if this has the desired effect of hiding the systray icon for an active program?