I like how symantec fucks up your bar with their colour logo. The input locales icon on my desktop is usually in [DV] mode, and only shows the flag when I have guests, so it doesn't really bother me much.

There is nothing worse than a Windows task tray icon. They scale horribly. They are often created from the worst possible colour combinations. Several of them look the same at a glance. I'm constantly clicking on the wrong quick launch icon, and I'm constantly playing whack-a-mole with tray icons.