ESX 4 Disable Hotplug on W2008

This Windows 2008 server VM issue relates to the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon that appears in the tray on VM's running the new version 7 hardware. I was able to successfully edit the VM's .vmx config file to add the line "devices.hotplug = false", but the icon still appears. I have entered this fix on other 2008 servers with no problem. The only thing different about this server is that it began life as a vS4/ver 7 VM instead of being upgraded from ESX 3.5. Any ideas?