With the release of the new Microsoft Defender, available to Microsoft 365 Subscribers, yet another icon was added to the taskbar at the bottom right.

The old Windows Security (white shield icon) is no longer needed as the new Microsoft Defender (blue shield icon) will be taking over, eventually.

To remove the (to be replaced) Windows Security (white shield) icon from the Windows Taskbar simply open Windows Task Manager by right mouse clicking in a blank area on the Taskbar.

Select the “Startup” tab from the top or left side of the Task Manager window. Right click on “Windows Security notification icon” and select “Disable” from the drop down list.

Note that you can also “Disable” the new Microsoft Defender but I don’t recommend it as I am not sure if you will receive notifications should it discover a security threat.

If you wanted to uninstall and remove Microsoft Defender completely, then simply go to your Start menu. Locate the new Microsoft Defender app and right mouse click it to reveal a menu with the option to “Uninstall“.

Conclusion

I hope this article has helped you reduce the number of taskbar icons. I welcome your thoughts, questions or suggestions regarding this article.

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Let me know if you found any errors within my article or if I may further assist you by answering any additional questions you may have.

If you log into your Windows 11 PC using a local account and password you must first click or swipe on the lock screen to reveal the password input prompt. This extra step is not really necessary and can be removed using the following registry edit within this article.

This way, upon boot up, you may simply begin typing your password without first having to click or swipe away your lock screen.

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