These "stupid little updates" prevent my webserver from script kiddies and other LDOSA (Lame Denial Of Service Attacks) since the only updates that come through to the Automatic Windows Update are "critical" updates i.e. security related patches which /me needs and /me loves :)
The thing is I'm not sure how one could know what makes that icon disappear. Obviously it receives a mouse hover message and upon that message must be checking something (maybe that the current shell is explorer) and then desactivate itself if that test fails. But what exactly the test is and how to circumvent it I would be curious to know....