You see the Windows 10 notification icon in your system tray. You’ve reserved your download, and you’ve checked your computer – You’re all set. But now, can you remove the icon? The answer is yes!
First, on Windows 7, right click on the arrow by the system tray. You have to have your mouse pointing right to the arrow.
Then, click on Properties on the menu that pops up.
At the bottom of the window that opens, you’ll see the words Customize notification icons. Click on this.
In Windows 8, right clicking on the arrow and hitting properties will bring up the following screen. Just click on Customize by Notification Area.
The next screen will list all the icons in your system tray. The Windows 10 will be called GWX and will likely be at the top. Click the arrow by this entry and you can choose between Show icon and notifications, Hide icon and notifications, and Only show notifications.
If you don’t want to see the icon, but still want to know when Windows 10 will be ready for download, I’d recommend choosing “Only show notifications.” If you choose Hide icon and notifications, you likely won’t see any sort of notification that the download is ready, you’ll just have to remember to check. Whichever you choose, click OK at the bottom to save your choice.
This screen will also allow you to hide any other system icons you no longer want to see, so you may want to browse through those options.
~ Audra
A quicker way is to click the little arrow, put your mouse on the icon and press the left mouse button, drag the icon into the box and let go, take your mouse out of the box and click anywhere else, the box closes, the icon is gone. But not forgotten!
Customising to make it show only notifications or not at all only works for me until I reboot. After restart the icon then resets itself to show all the time.
How can it be removed for good?
I tried this and it works until the system restarts. It seems that windows is not remembering the setting like with all the others. It reappears after a restart.
This works for me, stopped the icon resetting itself on restart.
http://www.askvg.com/fix-input-indicator-icon-comes-back-in-taskbar-notification-area-after-restarting-windows/