Notification area corrupt

[Guest]

Only the clock appears in the Notification area. Under "properties" of the
"Start" Button the "Taskbar" Tab- "Hide Inactive Icons" is unchecked and
greyed out. I am not able to restore to a new restore point because there are
no restore points. There are about 8 icons that do not appear, including the
LAN,Firewall, Printer, Security and so forth. Will appreciate any advice.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

"Hide inactive icons" is greyed out in Taskbar Properties:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/traynotify.htm

Note: Check for the two values under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE also.