Windows' system tray is on the far right end of your task bar. It holds shortcuts to programs that load or install when your PC boots.
Removing items from your system tray can be a two-minute project, or it can take half a day to sort out what's in the tray, what needs to stay there, and what can hit the bit bucket.
The first step is to identify the program that the icon represents and decide if it needs to be in the system tray (most aren't necessary). Hold the mouse cursor over the icon to see the name of the program the icon launches. Items such as RealPlayer, RealPlayer Jukebox, Napster, ATI's Video Manager, and AOL's Instant Messenger are the usual suspects.
The best bet is to right- or left-click on the icon to see if this opens the program's options box. If it does, hunt around for a selection similar to 'Remove from System Tray' or 'Check here if you don't want this program to load with Windows.'
For more details and help removing stubbord icons check out this article:
http://www.pcworld.com//article/id,73163-page,1/article.html