How to stop the "Location in use" icon from repeatedly appearing in the taskbar?

Question

How to stop the "Location in use" icon from repeatedly appearing in the taskbar?

TSENTaRt 55

There's a Windows design flaw that the appearing of the "Location in use" icon will shift all the tabs to the left and vice versa (i.e. the disappearing of it will shift all the tabs to the right).

Until this flaw is fixed, is there a way to prevent the "Location in use" icon from showing whenever an app requests location? I know the nuclear solution is to disable the Windows location services all together, but is there a gentler solution?

Morrison, Dan 25 Reputation points

2026-03-15T19:15:54.33+00:00

I'm just here to echo how phenomenally irritating this popup is. I don't care when it is checking in with its location and I don't want to disable location services. Microsoft needs to stop wasting its efforts on giving Mustafa Suleyman a microphone and promoting Copilot and actually make its OS features work without punishing the end user. The hostility towards the user is relentless. Even with admin rights these mistakes by Microsoft cannot be fixed.
Paul Granger 15 Reputation points

2026-04-02T10:32:22.9066667+00:00

It's so annoying!! My taskbar icons keep shifting all the time. I'll go to click on something and click the wrong button because it's moved... Please Microsoft, allow it to be turned off. It's very distracting.
Bluegecko 5 Reputation points

2026-04-02T18:47:35.8933333+00:00

Very distracting feature/information. Every 30s the your productivity is interrupted. Turning off location services under privacy setting is one way. I found one tweak helpful to change the taskbar alignment from "center" to "left". This mitigates the distraction a little bit.
James L 0 Reputation points

2026-05-12T14:26:38.24+00:00

@Bluegecko Thank you for this! Since I started using Windows 11 I didn't even consider that I could shift the taskbar back to the left.

3 answers

Your answer

Morrison, Dan 25 Reputation points

2026-03-15T19:15:54.33+00:00

I'm just here to echo how phenomenally irritating this popup is. I don't care when it is checking in with its location and I don't want to disable location services. Microsoft needs to stop wasting its efforts on giving Mustafa Suleyman a microphone and promoting Copilot and actually make its OS features work without punishing the end user. The hostility towards the user is relentless. Even with admin rights these mistakes by Microsoft cannot be fixed.
Paul Granger 15 Reputation points

2026-04-02T10:32:22.9066667+00:00

It's so annoying!! My taskbar icons keep shifting all the time. I'll go to click on something and click the wrong button because it's moved... Please Microsoft, allow it to be turned off. It's very distracting.
Bluegecko 5 Reputation points

2026-04-02T18:47:35.8933333+00:00

Very distracting feature/information. Every 30s the your productivity is interrupted. Turning off location services under privacy setting is one way. I found one tweak helpful to change the taskbar alignment from "center" to "left". This mitigates the distraction a little bit.
James L 0 Reputation points

2026-05-12T14:26:38.24+00:00

@Bluegecko Thank you for this! Since I started using Windows 11 I didn't even consider that I could shift the taskbar back to the left.

Answer 1

Currently, there is no specific setting in Windows that allows you to prevent the "Location in use" icon from appearing in the taskbar without disabling location services entirely. The icon is designed to inform users when an application is actively using location services, and this behavior is consistent across Windows 10 and Windows 11.

If you want to avoid the icon from showing up, the only option available is to disable location services completely, which you mentioned as the "nuclear solution." Unfortunately, there are no gentler solutions provided in the context that would allow you to manage this icon's visibility without affecting the overall functionality of location services.

You may want to provide feedback to Microsoft regarding this design flaw through the Feedback Hub, as user feedback can influence future updates and changes in Windows design.

Answer 2

WhoKnowsNothing 0

I have solved problem

I tried to hide the icon but it just can't be done, so instead, I programmed something that will keep the icon showing, so there is no flashing.

Check out https://github.com/WhoKnowsNothing/LocationGlue

0 comments

Answer 3

Paulo GM 74,055 Independent Advisor

Hi,

If you prefer to keep Location enabled, you will need to identify which app is triggering the notification and stop it from accessing your location.

Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location, then turn off location access for each app one by one. Check after each change until the notification no longer appears.

If the app in the list doesn't have a toggle in them, it only means that it has its own location settings. If it is Edge, go to Edge Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Site permissions > All permissions> Location and remove the allowed websites if you don't want it completely disabled.

Andrew Xue 0 Reputation points

2026-04-14T21:46:00.0433333+00:00

So, basically no solution to a disruptive UI feature besides disabling the service it's supposed to indicate altogether?
Tim Duerden 0 Reputation points

2026-10-29T13:29:15.9133333+00:00

Thank you for the helpful guidance while the idiots at Microsoft continue to design 'features' no one wants. Do these people use their own systems? But then, this is the company that makes you right click to correct spelling in the body of an email but left click in the subject heading to correct spelling. How is that possible?