Windows Messenger Never Appears in System Tray at Startup

[Guest]

I can't get the Windows Messenger icon to appear in the system tray when I start up Windows. All of my other icons display properly. I ascertained that Windows Messenger is loading okay at startup by checking MSCONFIG (the "msmsgs" box is checked, the path specified in the command is correct, and the "/background" switch is appended) . The only way that the icon will appear is if I run it (msmsgs.exe) manually, or run Outlook Express, which uses Windows Messenger. At that point, the icon is then included in the "Current Items" category under "Customize Notifications" after right-clicking the system tray, and the option "Always Show" is specified; it is not hidden. The strange thing is that after I restart Windows, the icon then appears in the "Past Items" category, although "Always Show" is still specified. There is no way that I am aware of to move it back to the "Current Items" category, except to either run it manually or run Outlook Express. It always jumps back to "Past Items".
I don't have this problem with any of my other icons.

This has been happening only recently, and seems to coincide with my downloading of the latest version of Windows Messenger (version 5.0). I don't see how just downloading a new version could cause this problem, and it is possible that it happened before downloading version 5.0; I'm not sure. But it started to happen around that time.

Does anyone know how to fix this problem? I know that it is minor, but it is annoying, and I would appreciate some assistance!

Thank you!

 

[Jonathan Kay [MVP]]

Greetings Nils,

Do you have Norton Antivirus installed? Recent versions of Norton Antivirus added a new
"instant messaging scanning" feature, which can conflict with Messenger and cause this
behavior. To stop it, open Norton Antivirus (Right-click on the Norton Antivirus icon in the
System Tray/Notification Area (by the clock), choose 'Open Norton Antivirus'), click Options,
then Instant Messenger then uncheck MSN Instant Messenger and click OK.
____________________________________________
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Messenger/MSN Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com