When the Windows 10 release date was announced, Microsoft triggered a Windows Update that had previously been installed to prompt Windows 7 and Windows 8 computers (not joined to a domain) to prompt their users to “reserve their place in line” to upgrade to Windows 10. This is accomplished by a Windows icon in the system tray (or notification area).
Say you’ve gone ahead and reserved “your place” in line, but the icon stays there. You can learn more about Windows 10 from the icon’s right-click menu but mostly, you don’t need to do anything for the next two months until Windows 10 is delivered. How can you hide the icon so it’s not staring at you until July 29th?
Right-click the clock and choose ‘Customize notification icons’. Otherwise, you can click the up arrow next to the Get Windows 10 icon and choose ‘Customize…’ on the tray that opens up.
The Notification Area Icons window will pop-up. Find GWX, for Get Windows 10, and change the behavior drop-down in its row to “Only show notifications” so it only appears when it has a status change to alert you. “Hide icon and notifications” will make sure you’re less pestered by the update prompt icon.
You can still see the icon by clicking the up arrow to reveal the notification area’s tray, it just is not visible all of the time. That should do it for the explanation.
Or, if you prefer video:
To remove it more permanently, you can also view installed updates in Control Panel and uninstall update KB3035583, which brought “Get Windows 10” to Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 computers.