Author and PC World columnist Steve Bass appears on "The Screen Savers" to talk about his new book, "PC Annoyances: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things About Your Personal Computer." The following is an excerpt from the book.

The Annoyance: If one more program installs an icon in my system tray without permission, I'm going to buy a Mac. I don't want icons and links scattered all over my desktop, Start menu, and system tray.

The Fix: There are plenty of arrogant companies that toss their icons around -- Netscape, AOL, RealOne, and Yahoo, to name just a few. (Real is probably the worst, and I've banned the program form my PC.)

You can stop this icon madness by following these five tips.

Watch the installation
Stay alert during the installation. If you have the option, always opt for the custom installation. You'll probably have a choice of where the program plants its icons. Besides avoiding system tray litter, you can also stop programs from adding icons to the Start menu and desktop.

Protect your system tray
WinPatrol is a free early-warning system that stops unsavory programs, such as Trojans, phone dialers, and spyware, from doing damage to your system or reporting your surfing habits to others. WinPatrol watches for anything that adds itself to the Startup group or Windows Registry, flags suspicious items, and offers to remove nasty programs. In order to remove or disinfect the offending program, you'll still need a spyware removal tool, such as Spybot, and an antivirus program.

When WinPatrol starts yelling about an unwelcome entry, you can allow the program into your Startup group if it's legit; if you say no, and the program tries again, WinPatrol blocks subsequent attempts. That's especially handy for notoriously insistent programs such as QuickTime, RealPlayer, and MSN Messenger.

WinPatrol also lets you see a list of Active Tasks, cookies, and Win XP's running Services, and it works with all versions of Windows. In most cases, you can also gain some insight into the applet's source and purpose. For $13, WinPatrol Pro provides an extensive database to further identify what's trying to get into your system tray. The program is available at http://www.oreilly.com/pcannoyances.

Make a clean sweep
Start by hovering the pointer over the icon to identify the application it belongs to -- then decide if the icon needs to be in the system tray. (Most don't. Programs such as RealOne Player, RealPlayer Jukebox, ATI's Video Manager, and AOL's Instant Messenger are typical culprits.) Select Start > Programs ("All Programs" in XP) > Startup to see what's in your Startup group, and you'll probably find a few programs you can dump.

To dig deeper, use Windows msconfig (select Start > Run, type msconfig, and press Enter) or use Startup Control Panel, a free utility that lets you examine and remove programs that are loaded at startup (get it at http://www.oreilly.com/pcannoyances).

Extra ammunition
Many programs have mysterious, abbreviated filenames, so check the Greatis Application Database (see http://snipurl.com/greatis) for an extensive list that identifies and explains the function -- and potential danger -- of the programs in your system tray and Startup group.

Block that call
If the program insists on phoning home regularly for new ads or for something more sinister, such as your surfing habits, block the outgoing call with your firewall. I use Zone Labs' ZoneAlarm to block the outgoing missive temporarily a few times to see if it incapacitates the program; if it doesn't, I make the block permanent.

"PC Annoyances"