The Stylus Clutter
Windows 11 is designed to work across a wide variety of hardware, including touchscreen tablets and 2-in-1 laptops equipped with digital styluses. To accommodate this, Microsoft includes the “Windows Ink Workspace” (often called the Pen menu). By default, this feature places a small pen icon on the right side of your taskbar, near the clock. Clicking it opens a small dashboard with shortcuts to the Snipping Tool, a digital whiteboard, and handwriting settings. If you are using a traditional desktop computer with a standard mouse and keyboard, this pen icon is entirely useless and simply wastes valuable taskbar real estate. You can safely remove it from your screen.
How to Hide the Pen Menu
You can customize exactly which system icons appear on your taskbar via the Personalization settings.
- Right-click anywhere on an empty space on your Taskbar.
- Click on Taskbar settings in the small pop-up menu.
- A new Settings window will open. Look at the section labeled Taskbar corner icons (or “System tray icons” in newer Windows 11 updates).
- Click the small downward-facing arrow to expand the list of icons if it is collapsed.
- Look for the toggle switch labeled Pen menu.
- Toggle this switch to the Off position.
The Result
The change is instantaneous. The squiggly pen icon will instantly vanish from the system tray in the bottom right corner of your screen, pulling your network and volume icons slightly closer together for a cleaner, more streamlined desktop experience. Because you only hid the icon, the actual Snipping Tool and Whiteboard applications remain fully installed and accessible via the Start Menu.