How to return "Safely remove hardware" in the "Taskbar" Windows

Probably, you have already heard more than once that before removing the USB flash drive and computer, you need to click the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon. Usually it is located on the taskbar or “hides” under the arrow pointing up. But it so happens that at the right moment the icon disappears somewhere - temporarily or permanently. Now we will tell you how to get it back and how important it is to do it.

How to restore the ability to safely remove the device in Windows.

Can a USB flash drive burn if it isn’t “Safely Remove”?

When you press a special button to remove the device, the bot checks whether it does some kind of collaboration with the PC: data exchange, synchronization, etc. —that is what the “Safely Remove” flash drive function is needed for. It does not burn, as ordinary people are accustomed to say, you can just lose some of the information, but this is not always the case. If you transferred photos, watched a movie, listened to music, etc., and then finished the work and decided to remove the USB flash drive, then “Safely Extract” is not needed - you can hardly see whether the files are copied or not.

But if you opened a word-document saved on a flash drive, printed it and are going to remove the medium from the slot - it is better to do this through the appropriate function. “Word” files are cached, and you can miss several pages of text or get the initial version and a broken Fragment file with a badge in the form of a torn sheet. Other programs, such as graphic editors, drawing applications, etc., also “sin” with the same behavior. If you have been working on a project that is open from a flash drive, it is better not to take it out by simply pulling it out of the slot — otherwise a few hours of hard work will go to waste.

You can protect yourself and disable caching:

  1. Go to the "Computer", right-click and select "Properties."
  2. Open the "Device Manager", find your flash drive, open its properties, go to the "Policy" and uncheck the box "Allow write caching to disk", and also enable "Optimize for quick removal."

Now, in the event that you forget and remove the flash drive just like that, your data is not in danger, but each carrier will have to be configured individually, and this is also not very convenient. Now you know why “Safely Remove” is needed, but it does not work with all devices. Some do without it:

  • mp3 players;
  • smartphones;
  • tablets.

If you wanted to safely remove something from this list, but did not find the button, do not be discouraged - this is how it should be.

How to return the "Safely Remove" flash drives and other USB-devices automatically

When the icon, which is responsible for the ability to safely remove the device, disappeared, you should use the Microsoft Automatic Diagnostics and Troubleshooting feature USB add-on. In some builds of “Windows, it is already built into the system, but if this is not your case, you can download it from the developer’s website.

  1. Open the program window.
  2. Choose your flash drive.
  3. Click "Next".
  4. The program itself will understand what the problem is, and correct it - you will receive a notification that the media can be removed.

Please note that the “Safely Remove” icon has now returned to its place: this works both with Windows 10 and in cases where there is no icon on Windows 7.

How to return the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon by editing the registry

Now let's look at how to make the button visible by using the capabilities of the OS.

  1. Click on the magnifying glass icon next to “Start” and make a query: “regedit”.
  2. Launch the application of the same name and open the folders: HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Software / Microsoft Windows / CurrentVersion / Applets / SysTray.
  3. In the last section, you will find the Services file: click on it twice, and in the line write “0x0000001b”. Then click on HotPlugFlags and enter: 0x0000002.

Restart the system, plug in any retrieved equipment and check if the icon disappears.

Using third-party applications

If the option icon disappears, and you are not a very confident PC user and do not understand how to get to the registry or are afraid to damage something, you can download some simple program where everything is automated. For example, USB Disk Ejector. It is not able to restore the standard “Safely Retrieve” icon as such, but may return the function itself.

The program is very easy to use: when you decide to remove the USB flash drive, simply launch the software, select the media name and double click on it. Wait until the cross appears opposite - and you can safely interrupt the connection.