Enable or disable Windows Security notification icon in Windows 11

Windows 11 comes with preinstalled security suite called Windows Security also known as Windows Defender. With this security suite you get free of cost security protection on your device. Windows Security can protect your system in real-time from different kind of security threats. By default, you will find Windows Security notification icon present on the taskbar. That small icon keeps you updated with Windows Security dashboard or happenings. In this article, we will see how you can enable or disable Windows Security notification icon in Windows 11.

So as I said, Windows Security notification icon is present there by default. In case if you have any special requirement of hiding or removing this icon, you can try out below methods. There are different methods available to manage the icon. You can try them as per your convenience.

Enable or disable Windows Security notification icon in Windows 11

Method 1 – Show or hide Windows Security notification icon using Settings app

Note: This method works in Windows 11 build 22572 or later.

• Press  + X keys and select Settings.
• Go to Personalization > Taskbar.
• Under Other system tray icons, turn On or Off Windows Security notification icon to enable or disable the icon from taskbar, respectively.

Method 2 – Show or hide Windows Security notification icon using registry

• Run regedit command to open Registry Editor.
• Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender Security Center\Systray.
• Under Systray, set HideSystray registry DWORD (REG_DWORD) to 1 to disable or hide Windows Security notification icon. To show the icon, simply delete this DWORD.
• Close Registry Editor and restart your system to make changes effective.

Method 3 – Show or hide Windows Security notification icon using Group Policy

• Open Group Policy snap-in using gpedit.msc or gpmc.msc command.
• Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Security > Systray.
• Locate the policy setting named Hide Windows Security Systray. Double click on this policy setting to modify it.

• Set the policy configuration to Enabled or Disabled in order to show or hide Windows Security notification icon on taskbar, respectively.

• Close Group Policy snap-in and update Group Policy engine by running gpupdate /force command.

That’s it!

Related: Show/hide Windows Security notification icon in Windows 10.