Notification Area (aka System Tray) - Some Icons Have Disappeared

[Melvin]

On one of my computers I've lost several of the normal icons that reside in the System Tray / Notification Area at lower right corner of the display.

And no it's not because I have the Hide inactive icons option enabled in Taskbar and Start Menu Properties. I am familiar with the little blue arrow and how it works...

I think for some reason that some of the icon images have somehow gotten corrupted - when I click Customize... in Taskbar and Start Menu Properties I find the following:

For items that still appear in the tray: They show up in the list with the correct icon.
For items that no longer appear in the tray: They show up in the list with a generic Windows "folder" icon.

Here's a list of icons that still appear in my Notification Area:
a.. MSN Messenger 7.0 Beta
b.. Outlook 2003
c.. AVG Antivirus 7.0
d.. Windows XP Wireless Network Indicator
e.. Windows XP Local Area Network
The following are icons that I no longer see:
a.. Volume Control
b.. Dell QuickSet (I have a Dell laptop)
c.. Dell Wireless Network Indicator
d.. Microsoft Antispyware Beta
Also, the little blue arrow for expanding / hiding the Notification Area has disappeared too, even though the Hide inactive icons option is selected.

I recently installed MSN Messenger 7.0 Beta on the machine, and upgraded (uninstall / fresh install) the Microsoft AntiSpyware beta on the machine. Don't know if this could be related. (I am aware of the caveats about running beta software; rest assured that this is a non-production machine).

Anybody else seen this / have any troubleshooting suggestions? NB I didn't find any acknowledgement of this particular problem in the Microsoft Support KB or a mention of a similar problem in this newsgroup.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

MVP Kelly's Taskbar Repair Tool Plus! may help with this, see:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

On one of my computers I've lost several of the normal icons that reside in
the System Tray / Notification Area at lower right corner of the display.

And no it's not because I have the Hide inactive icons option enabled in
Taskbar and Start Menu Properties. I am familiar with the little blue arrow
and how it works...

I think for some reason that some of the icon images have somehow gotten
corrupted - when I click Customize... in Taskbar and Start Menu Properties I
find the following:

For items that still appear in the tray: They show up in the list with the
correct icon.
For items that no longer appear in the tray: They show up in the list with
a generic Windows "folder" icon.

Here's a list of icons that still appear in my Notification Area:
a.. MSN Messenger 7.0 Beta
b.. Outlook 2003
c.. AVG Antivirus 7.0
d.. Windows XP Wireless Network Indicator
e.. Windows XP Local Area Network
The following are icons that I no longer see:
a.. Volume Control
b.. Dell QuickSet (I have a Dell laptop)
c.. Dell Wireless Network Indicator
d.. Microsoft Antispyware Beta
Also, the little blue arrow for expanding / hiding the Notification Area has
disappeared too, even though the Hide inactive icons option is selected.

I recently installed MSN Messenger 7.0 Beta on the machine, and upgraded
(uninstall / fresh install) the Microsoft AntiSpyware beta on the machine.
Don't know if this could be related. (I am aware of the caveats about
running beta software; rest assured that this is a non-production machine).

Anybody else seen this / have any troubleshooting suggestions? NB I didn't
find any acknowledgement of this particular problem in the Microsoft Support
KB or a mention of a similar problem in this newsgroup.

 

[Melvin]

Well I believe in miracles - my missing icons are now back.

Turned on my computer this morning and after a good night's sleep (was in
hibernate) the icons are back. Don't want to draw any analogies to what
weekend this is but it's definitely a miraculous event.

Unfortunately it's going to bug me for the rest of the day as I really like
to know why things happen / don't happen.

Thanks for the reference to the Kelly's Corner program - I've downloaded it
and will keep it on hand...