keeping system tray icons from disappearing after explorer crash

[Guest]

I'm sure you MVPs are familiar with the problem that some icons in the system tray do not reappear after an explorer shell crash. Some programs are written to restore their own icons, but others are not. I know there are some shareware system tray utilities that supposedly account for this problem and restore all system tray icons. The problem with those is that they do too much that is already built into XP, such as managing the visibility of the icons.

Is there a simple little (free) utility or powertoy that anyone can recommend to restore all icons to the system tray after a crash? I tried Kelly's utility at
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm on line 294, but that doesn't show any more icons than were there following the initial crash.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Kelly]

Hi,

There are different measures to be taken depending......

I have the checkpoints listed in the first link:

Troubleshooting the Notification Area
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_n.htm#na

Logging off generally corrects all icons.

More options here:

Repair/Customize Quick Launch, Taskbar and Notification Area
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm

/xp_tweaks.htm

I'm sure you MVPs are familiar with the problem that some icons in the

system tray do not reappear after an explorer shell crash. Some programs
are written to restore their own icons, but others are not. I know there
are some shareware system tray utilities that supposedly account for this
problem and restore all system tray icons. The problem with those is that
they do too much that is already built into XP, such as managing the
visibility of the icons.

Is there a simple little (free) utility or powertoy that anyone can

recommend to restore all icons to the system tray after a crash? I tried
Kelly's utility at

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm on line 294, but that

doesn't show any more icons than were there following the initial crash.

 

[Guest]

Thank you for responding, Kelly. Happy Holidays to you as well.

The problem can *definitely* be solved by logging off and back on, but I would then have to close all of my running applications and that is precisely what I am trying to avoid. By logging off and back on, effectively I would be restarting all of my applications, thus alerting the new instance of the explorer shell of their existence.

I believe the reason why some icons disappear after an explorer shell crash is that the icons for programs (at least the ones that do not restore themselves on their own) seem to be tracked by the explorer shell itself; therefore an explorer crash loses all information regarding what used to be there. The third party tools I mentioned do not crash when explorer does, and therefore can keep the system tray icons in memory in a separate process and restore them in the new instance of explorer after the crash.

My basic goal is to separate the process for tracking system tray icons from the explorer shell, without resorting to one of those feature-bloated shareware tools. I'm surprised there is no free fix, powertoy, or tweak for this.

Does anyone know of one?

----- Kelly wrote: -----

Hi,

There are different measures to be taken depending......

I have the checkpoints listed in the first link:

Troubleshooting the Notification Area
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_n.htm#na

Logging off generally corrects all icons.

More options here:

Repair/Customize Quick Launch, Taskbar and Notification Area
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm

/xp_tweaks.htm

I'm sure you MVPs are familiar with the problem that some icons in the

system tray do not reappear after an explorer shell crash. Some programs
are written to restore their own icons, but others are not. I know there
are some shareware system tray utilities that supposedly account for this
problem and restore all system tray icons. The problem with those is that
they do too much that is already built into XP, such as managing the
visibility of the icons.recommend to restore all icons to the system tray after a crash? I tried
Kelly's utility at

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm on line 294, but that

doesn't show any more icons than were there following the initial crash.

 

[David Candy]

Programs get told the tray is starting, if running they should readd themselves.

--
----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.g2mil.com/Dec2003.htm

Thank you for responding, Kelly. Happy Holidays to you as well.

The problem can *definitely* be solved by logging off and back on, but I would then have to close all of my running applications and that is precisely what I am trying to avoid. By logging off and back on, effectively I would be restarting all of my applications, thus alerting the new instance of the explorer shell of their existence.

I believe the reason why some icons disappear after an explorer shell crash is that the icons for programs (at least the ones that do not restore themselves on their own) seem to be tracked by the explorer shell itself; therefore an explorer crash loses all information regarding what used to be there. The third party tools I mentioned do not crash when explorer does, and therefore can keep the system tray icons in memory in a separate process and restore them in the new instance of explorer after the crash.

My basic goal is to separate the process for tracking system tray icons from the explorer shell, without resorting to one of those feature-bloated shareware tools. I'm surprised there is no free fix, powertoy, or tweak for this.

Does anyone know of one?

----- Kelly wrote: -----

Hi,

There are different measures to be taken depending......

I have the checkpoints listed in the first link:

Troubleshooting the Notification Area
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_n.htm#na

Logging off generally corrects all icons.

More options here:

Repair/Customize Quick Launch, Taskbar and Notification Area
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm

--
Happy Holidays,
Kelly

MS-MVP Win98/XP
[AE-Windows® XP]

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com

Registry Edits, Tips and Tricks for XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

I'm sure you MVPs are familiar with the problem that some icons in the

system tray do not reappear after an explorer shell crash. Some programs
are written to restore their own icons, but others are not. I know there
are some shareware system tray utilities that supposedly account for this
problem and restore all system tray icons. The problem with those is that
they do too much that is already built into XP, such as managing the
visibility of the icons.recommend to restore all icons to the system tray after a crash? I tried
Kelly's utility at

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm on line 294, but that

doesn't show any more icons than were there following the initial crash.

 

[Guest]

Update: Y Tray Magic Lite doesn't seem to work with XP... I tested it by killing the explorer process and the system tray icons did not come back.

Still stuck...

----- CrashMaster wrote: -----

I posted a reply (way more than 5 minutes ago) and it hasn't appeared so I will post it again.

David, you are right that they *should* readd themselves. However, many do not. For example: my Promise Raid Array Monitor tool, WinDVD's WinCinema Manager, Webroot Spy Sweeper, Bit Torrent, popup ad filter, etc. do not readd themselves, while my firewall, netlimiter, my bluetooth manager, and other programs do.

I have found a small utility called Y Tray Magic Lite which is supposed to restore system try icons after an explorer crash. However the install doesn't completely work because it had a problem adding itself to the startup registry key. It can only replace system tray icons that are added after it starts running, so I am now attempting to have it run before my other programs. We'll see what happens.

If anyone has another (better) program / tweak / powertoy, please let me know. Thanks again.

----- David Candy wrote: -----

Programs get told the tray is starting, if running they should readd themselves.

--
----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.g2mil.com/Dec2003.htm

Thank you for responding, Kelly. Happy Holidays to you as well.

The problem can *definitely* be solved by logging off and back on, but I would then have to close all of my running applications and that is precisely what I am trying to avoid. By logging off and back on, effectively I would be restarting all of my applications, thus alerting the new instance of the explorer shell of their existence.
I believe the reason why some icons disappear after an explorer shell crash is that the icons for programs (at least the ones that do not restore themselves on their own) seem to be tracked by the explorer shell itself; therefore an explorer crash loses all information regarding what used to be there. The third party tools I mentioned do not crash when explorer does, and therefore can keep the system tray icons in memory in a separate process and restore them in the new instance of explorer after the crash.
My basic goal is to separate the process for tracking system tray icons from the explorer shell, without resorting to one of those feature-bloated shareware tools. I'm surprised there is no free fix, powertoy, or tweak for this.
Does anyone know of one?
----- Kelly wrote: -----
Hi,
There are different measures to be taken depending......
I have the checkpoints listed in the first link:
Troubleshooting the Notification Area http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_n.htm#na
Logging off generally corrects all icons.
More options here:
Repair/Customize Quick Launch, Taskbar and Notification Area http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm
--

Happy Holidays,
Kelly

MS-MVP Win98/XP [AE-Windows® XP]
Troubleshooting Windows XP http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com
Registry Edits, Tips and Tricks for XP http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

"CrashMaster" <[email protected]> wrote in message

I'm sure you MVPs are familiar with the problem that some icons in the

system tray do not reappear after an explorer shell crash. Some programs
are written to restore their own icons, but others are not. I know there
are some shareware system tray utilities that supposedly account for this
problem and restore all system tray icons. The problem with those is that
they do too much that is already built into XP, such as managing the
visibility of the icons.recommend to restore all icons to the system tray after a crash? I tried
Kelly's utility at

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm on line 294, but that

doesn't show any more icons than were there following the initial crash.