Taskbar Icons Keep Disappearing

[Bill Sanderson]

Outlook Express MVP's tend to believe that it is Outlook Express's data
store that is not sufficiently robust, not the identities.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

There've been some issues with the descriptions of capabilities of the
current beta program. I hope that by Beta2, the descriptions and the
actuality will be somewhat better aligned.
--
FAQ for Microsoft Antispyware:
http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/FAQ_MSantispy.htm

Actually, with Fast User Switching, this is almost like have time
division multiplexing on the phone line--both users are actually running
at the same time, but only one can see the screen and keyboard.
So--ubiquitous hardware or not, I think this won't go away--and programs
like Microsoft Antispyware need to be able to deal with it better than
the current beta manages.

Ugh! The copper-like taste of "Internet Connection Sharing" [shudder].
There's no substitute for hardware sometimes.

As to the .NET message--I'm stumped--you seem to have ruled out all the
usual suspects. I'm trying to see how some significant performance
issue--interference from Microsoft Antispyware in some way--might cause
this but I don't see it.

I've not encountered the problem involving slow window-opens and stuff as
was occurring during the problem not being resolvable. Mind you a restart
STILL requires one to log out and then in again - a RIDICULOUS state for
any software to be left in! - so I don't think of this as a resolution, or
a cosmetic issue either.

No word from MS on this either. This and the newly-discovered "Oh we're
sorry but the help file was wrong and there's no scanner sharing under XP
after all" situation is getting me irritated. Did Scientologists infect
the development team?


--
Stephen Goodman
* Cartoons about DVDs and Stuff
* http://www.medialinenews.com
* http://www.earthlight.net/HiddenTrack
* http://www.earthlight.net/Gallery

 

[SP Goodman]

The unexpected disappearance of icons from the System Notification Area
(formerly known as the System Tray), even when they are configured always
to show, appears to be a long-standing bug in XP. As you have already
discovered, the missing icons always return if you Log Off and Log On
again. But if you Restart, the icons disappear again.

Hide when inactive stopped functioning last night again. Same as before:
checking boxes changes nothing.

The problem appears to be a little non-deterministic: no-one has found a
set of rules that guarantees it will happen, so that the Windows shell
team developers could investigate what it going on. The problem has
however been experienced by many users.

I've turned Fast User Switching off since a single-user machine doesn't need
it. Also I found that despite all appearances there was MSN Messenger *and*
Windows Messenger installed and running concurrently. Last reboot all icons
came up, still no hiding though.

However, there is one heavily implicated issue which might be provoking
the problem, and most people suffering from this problem agree that it
could be an issue with them: delays (possibly networking) during the
initialisation of some of the processes which put up the Notification Area
icons. In other words, if one of the earlier processes which posts a
Notification Area icon is held up for some reason, then later processes
fail to post their Notification Area icon at all. Typical reason for a
delay might be waiting for a network response which never comes, or a
crash which causes a minidump in the background.

Why would this malfunction/bug not manifest itself from the beginning? My
wife's been running XP since December and only last week the non-hiding and
icon non-loading (as in the case of Spybot and MSAS) began.

In your case, I would guess that the HP network printer driver is a prime
suspect for causing this effect. If you have not already done so, I
recommend that you update your HP printer drivers to the latest version
(dated 10-2004) from their site. Also, ensure that your printer is online
and functional when you start Windows.

The HP 6800#U is on the LAN at the router, and is available-functional at
bootup. The printer however was installed two weeks ago, a week before
icons stopped hiding round these parts. Drivers were downloaded and
installed as a second nature..

I'm going to sniff around and see if settings for notification from the
printer status routine (if I have it on, I don't usually have them loaded if
I can help it) have an effect on this.

Thanks!

--
Stephen Goodman
* Cartoons about DVDs and Stuff
* http://www.medialinenews.com
* http://www.earthlight.net/HiddenTrack
* http://www.earthlight.net/Gallery

 

[SP Goodman]

Hide when inactive stopped functioning last night again. Same as before:
checking boxes changes nothing.


I've turned Fast User Switching off since a single-user machine doesn't
need it. Also I found that despite all appearances there was MSN
Messenger *and* Windows Messenger installed and running concurrently.
Last reboot all icons came up, still no hiding though.


Why would this malfunction/bug not manifest itself from the beginning? My
wife's been running XP since December and only last week the non-hiding
and icon non-loading (as in the case of Spybot and MSAS) began.


The HP 6800#U is on the LAN at the router, and is available-functional at
bootup. The printer however was installed two weeks ago, a week before
icons stopped hiding round these parts. Drivers were downloaded and
installed as a second nature..

I'm going to sniff around and see if settings for notification from the
printer status routine (if I have it on, I don't usually have them loaded
if I can help it) have an effect on this.

Uninstalled MSN Messenger. It wouldn't be uninstalled so I did it
brute-force with Add-Remove, Windows Uninstaller, removing the folders, and
removing the Startup references, then rebooting. Surprise! Windows
Messenger was *also* concurrently installed under it from the initial XP
install. [shaking finger] Not uninstalling previous versions is something
I expect from Adobe. Removed Windows Messenger, restarted, reinstalled
MSN Messenger from the site.

The weird duplicate login message has of course gone away, thanks to there
only being one copy of Messenger trying to get at things.

Rebooted, icons hiding again from the start. Still logout-login to see all
icons.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger are separate apps--in fact, legally
separated, I suspect. They can be installed at the same time, not sure
about running.

--
FAQ for Microsoft Antispyware:
http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/FAQ_MSantispy.htm

Hide when inactive stopped functioning last night again. Same as before:
checking boxes changes nothing.


I've turned Fast User Switching off since a single-user machine doesn't
need it. Also I found that despite all appearances there was MSN
Messenger *and* Windows Messenger installed and running concurrently.
Last reboot all icons came up, still no hiding though.


Why would this malfunction/bug not manifest itself from the beginning?
My wife's been running XP since December and only last week the
non-hiding and icon non-loading (as in the case of Spybot and MSAS)
began.


The HP 6800#U is on the LAN at the router, and is available-functional at
bootup. The printer however was installed two weeks ago, a week before
icons stopped hiding round these parts. Drivers were downloaded and
installed as a second nature..

I'm going to sniff around and see if settings for notification from the
printer status routine (if I have it on, I don't usually have them loaded
if I can help it) have an effect on this.

Uninstalled MSN Messenger. It wouldn't be uninstalled so I did it
brute-force with Add-Remove, Windows Uninstaller, removing the folders,
and removing the Startup references, then rebooting. Surprise! Windows
Messenger was *also* concurrently installed under it from the initial XP
install. [shaking finger] Not uninstalling previous versions is
something I expect from Adobe. Removed Windows Messenger, restarted,
reinstalled MSN Messenger from the site.

The weird duplicate login message has of course gone away, thanks to there
only being one copy of Messenger trying to get at things.

Rebooted, icons hiding again from the start. Still logout-login to see
all icons.

Thanks!

--
Stephen Goodman
* Cartoons about DVDs and Stuff
* http://www.medialinenews.com
* http://www.earthlight.net/HiddenTrack
* http://www.earthlight.net/Gallery

 

[SP Goodman]

Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger are separate apps--in fact, legally
separated, I suspect. They can be installed at the same time, not sure
about running.

Their running at the same time was evidenced by the message about "logged in
from a new location". Tsk!

Rebooted and found myself back to square
1.5 without Spybot or MSAS. Per suggestion, logged out and back in,
to find all back to apparent normal.
If it's a Shell error why aren't more folks experiencing this? Or do
most folks not realize it's happening?

The unexpected disappearance of icons from the System Notification Area
(formerly known as the System Tray), even when they are configured
always to show, appears to be a long-standing bug in XP. As you have
already discovered, the missing icons always return if you Log Off and
Log On again. But if you Restart, the icons disappear again.

Hide when inactive stopped functioning last night again. Same as
before: checking boxes changes nothing.

The problem appears to be a little non-deterministic: no-one has found
a set of rules that guarantees it will happen, so that the Windows
shell team developers could investigate what it going on. The problem
has however been experienced by many users.

I've turned Fast User Switching off since a single-user machine doesn't
need it. Also I found that despite all appearances there was MSN
Messenger *and* Windows Messenger installed and running concurrently.
Last reboot all icons came up, still no hiding though.

However, there is one heavily implicated issue which might be provoking
the problem, and most people suffering from this problem agree that it
could be an issue with them: delays (possibly networking) during the
initialisation of some of the processes which put up the Notification
Area icons. In other words, if one of the earlier processes which
posts a Notification Area icon is held up for some reason, then later
processes fail to post their Notification Area icon at all. Typical
reason for a delay might be waiting for a network response which never
comes, or a crash which causes a minidump in the background.

Why would this malfunction/bug not manifest itself from the beginning?
My wife's been running XP since December and only last week the
non-hiding and icon non-loading (as in the case of Spybot and MSAS)
began.

In your case, I would guess that the HP network printer driver is a
prime suspect for causing this effect. If you have not already done
so, I recommend that you update your HP printer drivers to the latest
version (dated 10-2004) from their site. Also, ensure that your
printer is online and functional when you start Windows.

The HP 6800#U is on the LAN at the router, and is available-functional
at bootup. The printer however was installed two weeks ago, a week
before icons stopped hiding round these parts. Drivers were downloaded
and installed as a second nature..

I'm going to sniff around and see if settings for notification from the
printer status routine (if I have it on, I don't usually have them
loaded if I can help it) have an effect on this.

Uninstalled MSN Messenger. It wouldn't be uninstalled so I did it
brute-force with Add-Remove, Windows Uninstaller, removing the folders,
and removing the Startup references, then rebooting. Surprise! Windows
Messenger was *also* concurrently installed under it from the initial XP
install. [shaking finger] Not uninstalling previous versions is
something I expect from Adobe. Removed Windows Messenger, restarted,
reinstalled MSN Messenger from the site.

The weird duplicate login message has of course gone away, thanks to
there only being one copy of Messenger trying to get at things.

Rebooted, icons hiding again from the start. Still logout-login to see
all icons.

Thanks!

--
Stephen Goodman
* Cartoons about DVDs and Stuff
* http://www.medialinenews.com
* http://www.earthlight.net/HiddenTrack
* http://www.earthlight.net/Gallery

 

[Bill Sanderson]

I think you are right about that!
--
FAQ for Microsoft Antispyware:
http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/FAQ_MSantispy.htm

Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger are separate apps--in fact, legally
separated, I suspect. They can be installed at the same time, not sure
about running.

Their running at the same time was evidenced by the message about "logged
in from a new location". Tsk!

Rebooted and found myself back to square
1.5 without Spybot or MSAS. Per suggestion, logged out and back in,
to find all back to apparent normal.
If it's a Shell error why aren't more folks experiencing this? Or do
most folks not realize it's happening?

The unexpected disappearance of icons from the System Notification
Area (formerly known as the System Tray), even when they are
configured always to show, appears to be a long-standing bug in XP.
As you have already discovered, the missing icons always return if you
Log Off and Log On again. But if you Restart, the icons disappear
again.

Hide when inactive stopped functioning last night again. Same as
before: checking boxes changes nothing.

The problem appears to be a little non-deterministic: no-one has found
a set of rules that guarantees it will happen, so that the Windows
shell team developers could investigate what it going on. The problem
has however been experienced by many users.

I've turned Fast User Switching off since a single-user machine doesn't
need it. Also I found that despite all appearances there was MSN
Messenger *and* Windows Messenger installed and running concurrently.
Last reboot all icons came up, still no hiding though.

However, there is one heavily implicated issue which might be
provoking the problem, and most people suffering from this problem
agree that it could be an issue with them: delays (possibly
networking) during the initialisation of some of the processes which
put up the Notification Area icons. In other words, if one of the
earlier processes which posts a Notification Area icon is held up for
some reason, then later processes fail to post their Notification Area
icon at all. Typical reason for a delay might be waiting for a
network response which never comes, or a crash which causes a minidump
in the background.

Why would this malfunction/bug not manifest itself from the beginning?
My wife's been running XP since December and only last week the
non-hiding and icon non-loading (as in the case of Spybot and MSAS)
began.

In your case, I would guess that the HP network printer driver is a
prime suspect for causing this effect. If you have not already done
so, I recommend that you update your HP printer drivers to the latest
version (dated 10-2004) from their site. Also, ensure that your
printer is online and functional when you start Windows.

The HP 6800#U is on the LAN at the router, and is available-functional
at bootup. The printer however was installed two weeks ago, a week
before icons stopped hiding round these parts. Drivers were downloaded
and installed as a second nature..

I'm going to sniff around and see if settings for notification from the
printer status routine (if I have it on, I don't usually have them
loaded if I can help it) have an effect on this.

Uninstalled MSN Messenger. It wouldn't be uninstalled so I did it
brute-force with Add-Remove, Windows Uninstaller, removing the folders,
and removing the Startup references, then rebooting. Surprise! Windows
Messenger was *also* concurrently installed under it from the initial XP
install. [shaking finger] Not uninstalling previous versions is
something I expect from Adobe. Removed Windows Messenger, restarted,
reinstalled MSN Messenger from the site.

The weird duplicate login message has of course gone away, thanks to
there only being one copy of Messenger trying to get at things.

Rebooted, icons hiding again from the start. Still logout-login to see
all icons.



Thanks!

--
Stephen Goodman
* Cartoons about DVDs and Stuff
* http://www.medialinenews.com
* http://www.earthlight.net/HiddenTrack
* http://www.earthlight.net/Gallery

 

[SP Goodman]

Like I said, I expect better from Microsoft in the installation regard.

I think you are right about that!
--
FAQ for Microsoft Antispyware:
http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/FAQ_MSantispy.htm

Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger are separate apps--in fact, legally
separated, I suspect. They can be installed at the same time, not sure
about running.

Their running at the same time was evidenced by the message about "logged
in from a new location". Tsk!

Rebooted and found myself back to square
1.5 without Spybot or MSAS. Per suggestion, logged out and back in,
to find all back to apparent normal.
If it's a Shell error why aren't more folks experiencing this? Or
do
most folks not realize it's happening?

The unexpected disappearance of icons from the System Notification
Area (formerly known as the System Tray), even when they are
configured always to show, appears to be a long-standing bug in XP.
As you have already discovered, the missing icons always return if
you Log Off and Log On again. But if you Restart, the icons disappear
again.

Hide when inactive stopped functioning last night again. Same as
before: checking boxes changes nothing.

The problem appears to be a little non-deterministic: no-one has
found a set of rules that guarantees it will happen, so that the
Windows shell team developers could investigate what it going on.
The problem has however been experienced by many users.

I've turned Fast User Switching off since a single-user machine
doesn't need it. Also I found that despite all appearances there was
MSN Messenger *and* Windows Messenger installed and running
concurrently. Last reboot all icons came up, still no hiding though.

However, there is one heavily implicated issue which might be
provoking the problem, and most people suffering from this problem
agree that it could be an issue with them: delays (possibly
networking) during the initialisation of some of the processes which
put up the Notification Area icons. In other words, if one of the
earlier processes which posts a Notification Area icon is held up for
some reason, then later processes fail to post their Notification
Area icon at all. Typical reason for a delay might be waiting for a
network response which never comes, or a crash which causes a
minidump in the background.

Why would this malfunction/bug not manifest itself from the beginning?
My wife's been running XP since December and only last week the
non-hiding and icon non-loading (as in the case of Spybot and MSAS)
began.

In your case, I would guess that the HP network printer driver is a
prime suspect for causing this effect. If you have not already done
so, I recommend that you update your HP printer drivers to the latest
version (dated 10-2004) from their site. Also, ensure that your
printer is online and functional when you start Windows.

The HP 6800#U is on the LAN at the router, and is available-functional
at bootup. The printer however was installed two weeks ago, a week
before icons stopped hiding round these parts. Drivers were
downloaded and installed as a second nature..

I'm going to sniff around and see if settings for notification from
the printer status routine (if I have it on, I don't usually have them
loaded if I can help it) have an effect on this.

Uninstalled MSN Messenger. It wouldn't be uninstalled so I did it
brute-force with Add-Remove, Windows Uninstaller, removing the folders,
and removing the Startup references, then rebooting. Surprise!
Windows Messenger was *also* concurrently installed under it from the
initial XP install. [shaking finger] Not uninstalling previous
versions is something I expect from Adobe. Removed Windows
Messenger, restarted, reinstalled MSN Messenger from the site.

The weird duplicate login message has of course gone away, thanks to
there only being one copy of Messenger trying to get at things.

Rebooted, icons hiding again from the start. Still logout-login to see
all icons.



Thanks!

--
Stephen Goodman
* Cartoons about DVDs and Stuff
* http://www.medialinenews.com
* http://www.earthlight.net/HiddenTrack
* http://www.earthlight.net/Gallery

 

[Bill Sanderson]

I'm certainly no expert about the IM's--I barely tolerate actually using
them perhaps once a month or so! I think there are legal reasons why the
two apps are completely separate, and have different capabiltities, and are
probably unaware of each other. That said, they could probably describe the
relationship (or lack thereof) better.

--
FAQ for Microsoft Antispyware:
http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/FAQ_MSantispy.htm

Like I said, I expect better from Microsoft in the installation regard.

I think you are right about that!
--
FAQ for Microsoft Antispyware:
http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/FAQ_MSantispy.htm

Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger are separate apps--in fact, legally
separated, I suspect. They can be installed at the same time, not sure
about running.

Their running at the same time was evidenced by the message about
"logged in from a new location". Tsk!




Rebooted and found myself back to square
1.5 without Spybot or MSAS. Per suggestion, logged out and back
in,
to find all back to apparent normal.
If it's a Shell error why aren't more folks experiencing this? Or
do
most folks not realize it's happening?

The unexpected disappearance of icons from the System Notification
Area (formerly known as the System Tray), even when they are
configured always to show, appears to be a long-standing bug in XP.
As you have already discovered, the missing icons always return if
you Log Off and Log On again. But if you Restart, the icons
disappear again.

Hide when inactive stopped functioning last night again. Same as
before: checking boxes changes nothing.

The problem appears to be a little non-deterministic: no-one has
found a set of rules that guarantees it will happen, so that the
Windows shell team developers could investigate what it going on.
The problem has however been experienced by many users.

I've turned Fast User Switching off since a single-user machine
doesn't need it. Also I found that despite all appearances there was
MSN Messenger *and* Windows Messenger installed and running
concurrently. Last reboot all icons came up, still no hiding though.

However, there is one heavily implicated issue which might be
provoking the problem, and most people suffering from this problem
agree that it could be an issue with them: delays (possibly
networking) during the initialisation of some of the processes which
put up the Notification Area icons. In other words, if one of the
earlier processes which posts a Notification Area icon is held up
for some reason, then later processes fail to post their
Notification Area icon at all. Typical reason for a delay might be
waiting for a network response which never comes, or a crash which
causes a minidump in the background.

Why would this malfunction/bug not manifest itself from the
beginning? My wife's been running XP since December and only last
week the non-hiding and icon non-loading (as in the case of Spybot
and MSAS) began.

In your case, I would guess that the HP network printer driver is a
prime suspect for causing this effect. If you have not already done
so, I recommend that you update your HP printer drivers to the
latest version (dated 10-2004) from their site. Also, ensure that
your printer is online and functional when you start Windows.

The HP 6800#U is on the LAN at the router, and is
available-functional at bootup. The printer however was installed
two weeks ago, a week before icons stopped hiding round these parts.
Drivers were downloaded and installed as a second nature..

I'm going to sniff around and see if settings for notification from
the printer status routine (if I have it on, I don't usually have
them loaded if I can help it) have an effect on this.

Uninstalled MSN Messenger. It wouldn't be uninstalled so I did it
brute-force with Add-Remove, Windows Uninstaller, removing the
folders, and removing the Startup references, then rebooting.
Surprise! Windows Messenger was *also* concurrently installed under it
from the initial XP install. [shaking finger] Not uninstalling
previous versions is something I expect from Adobe. Removed
Windows Messenger, restarted, reinstalled MSN Messenger from the site.

The weird duplicate login message has of course gone away, thanks to
there only being one copy of Messenger trying to get at things.

Rebooted, icons hiding again from the start. Still logout-login to
see all icons.



Thanks!

--
Stephen Goodman
* Cartoons about DVDs and Stuff
* http://www.medialinenews.com
* http://www.earthlight.net/HiddenTrack
* http://www.earthlight.net/Gallery