XP SP2 safely remove hardware icon

Excuse me if I am in the wrong place but I am a brand new poster. I have installed XP SP2 and have an irritating problem. When I turn my Lexmark X73, (all in one) on an icon appears in the taskbar that says (when opened) "safely remove hardware". It opens to a box that says I can click to remove my X73 MFP scanner. If I click it, it removes the scanner etc completely. Never seen this before and can't get rid of it. When I turn the PC off, and reboot, it has gone, only to reappear when I switch the printer on. As this is 3 years old no new drivers exist on the Lexmark site. I only have a basic knowledge of such things so would be grateful for any advice. The printer works OK if you ignore this, it's just annoying. Thanks.

 

The reason that the icon is there is so as to stop devices safely so that you can remove USB cables without affecting either your runnning windows section or the peripheral device itself. I have an MP3 Jukebox that I attach to copy files from PC to player and when I'm finished click on this Icon so that I can remove the device and move on. When I use the Icon I also get my other USB devices in the list (Scanner + Printer) which if I chose from the list would stop working (because you are choosing to stop the device) until the next time I re-boot the PC. It's nothing top worry about and if you don't want to remove your device then don't use the facility.

 

If it is the icon that annoys you, you can choose to make it hidden.

Right click on the Taskbar and choose Properties. Click the Taskbar tab, then choose customize, you can make that icon 'always hidden', so you won't even see it.

Good Luck.