Sys-tray progs & icons

[Dave S.]

Using XP home.

When I start up the computer, the items that I expect to appear in the sys
tray aren't always there. For example, the icons for the wireless mouse &
keyboard sometimes don't appear, yet the the hardware is working OK.
Sometimes my scanner icons aren't there, yet the scanner works OK.

Once in a while, the desktop resets itself for no apparent reason, and after
that, most of the sys tray icons vanish, yet the programs they relate to
seem to be running.

I regularly scan for virus/ad & spyware etc, but nothing untoward is
indictaed.

It's more of an annoyance than a serious problem, but if anyone has any
thoughts as to how to put it right, I'd like to hear them.

Cheers

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Do you see the left pointing chevron to the left of the clock on the right
side of the taskbar? Pointing to that will cause the hidden icons to appear
briefly. The least frequently accessed programs are hidden to save space on
the taskbar, but you can change this by right clicking on the taskbar,
choosing Properties, selecting the Taskbar tab, and unchecking the bottom
box, "Hide inactive icons."

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

I was amused in writing the above post that OE's spellchecker flagged
"unchecking" as unknown and offered "upchucking" as a correction. Is
upchucking more common among computer users than unchecking a box? As in,
(paraphrasing the sea chanty) "What shall we do with the drunken
emailer...."

 

[Ian]

I have the same effect but I have no little chevron and all
of the icons in the taskbar are enabled. (Right click on
taskbar, select properties, customize and then set all to
"always show"). What happens is there's a randomness about
which ones show. Some show briefly and then disappear.

 

[Dave S.]

I have the same effect but I have no little chevron and all
of the icons in the taskbar are enabled. (Right click on
taskbar, select properties, customize and then set all to
"always show"). What happens is there's a randomness about
which ones show. Some show briefly and then disappear.

Same here. The little chevron only appears if you select "hide inactive
icons", and I do not use that setting.
Each time I reboot, the sys tray icons that appear seems to be random, both
in number and identity, yet the programs the missing ones represent seem to
be running OK.

Very strange!

Dave S.