I'm having trouble ejecting my USB external Maxtor hardrive using ME's unplug icon that shows in the system tray. When the icons load up and the "unplug icon" icon is the first one showing- forget it I cant eject or stop my Maxtor hardrive (I get a message to try again later) but when its like the 3rd or 4th icon shown in the row of the system tray icons I have no problem on selecting it and letting ME "stop and unload" the USB hardrive. Does anybody know how to change the order in which your icons (meaning hardware and software) get loaded into the system tray? I think this may clear up my problem with trying to unplug my external hardrive and not getting the message "to try again later"

First, make sure you are not looking at the USB drive letter, or accessing something on that drive when you are trying to unplug it. It can be difficult to get programs to load in the order you want. You have to find where they are loaded - the registry, or while booting, or as a startup program, or wherever. Even if you manage to list them in the order you want, they may not load in that order. You may be better off disabling the unplug icon altogether, and creating an icon for that program on the desktop instead, which should always work. The icons and the programs connected to them in the taskbar usually load as a startup program. Start - Run - type: msconfig - look under Startup tab. Some are default Windows ones - ScanRegistry, System Tray, TaskMonitor, LoadPowerProfile, SchedulingAgent - they are supposed to run all the time, and are necessary for the normal operation of windows - normally they can be left as is. There will also be at least one entry for something to do with your video display adapter, usually identifiable by something indicating a brand or model name of the adapter (e.g. ATI....). If you use a software firewall, there will be at least one entry for that. There will be at least one entry for your anti-virus program (e.g. Norton Anti Virus - name usually starts with NAV). Everything else other than these entries can be disabled by clicking on the box to the left to remove the checkmark. Try disabling the program that loads the unplug icon altogether, and creating an icon for that program on the desktop instead, which should always work. Once your figure out which one to disable, look on that line to find where the program is, go to that location, and make a shortcut to it on the desktop.