Hide the Backblaze icon in the System Tray from the Command Line

The Backblaze icon in the system tray allows the user immediate access to the Backblaze control panel, from which the user can change both scheduling and what is backed up. Some administrators would rather not trouble their users with that UI. Although this icon is controllable from the Backblaze Client user interface, that is typically not an option for remote installation.

Fortunately, RMM (Remote Machine Management) tools make this straightforward. However, because Backblaze has a native client for both Windows and MacOS, the method to do this varies by platform. 

Whatever RMM tool is being used, run the Mac or Windows script as the system administrator on the machine.

MacOS

The icon is controlled by a file,

/Library/Backblaze.bzpkg/bzdata/bzflags/mac_bzbmenu_hide_status_item.bzflag

When this file is present, the MacOS Backblaze client does not display an icon in the system tray. Removing the file restores the icon.

This two-line script (available here at github.com) will create the file:

Windows

On Windows, a registry key controls the icon. This .BAT file (available here at github.com) will remove the icon and remove the icon process.