When I restart my computer, the only icon showing in the system tray is for Norton Antivirus. There are about five other icons that should be there, but they're not -- even though the programs themselves are running. If I load another program after startup is complete, e.g. AOL Instant Messenger, it appears in the systray as normal. Also, the icon to control volume is missing, and I can only restore it by going to Sound in the control panel, unchecking "Place volume icon in taskbar" and clicking Apply, and then rechecking it and clicking Apply again. What the heck is going on? I replaced my systray.exe file from the installation CD, so I know that's not the issue.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I assume you have elected to show the tray icons in Taskbar & Start Menu Properties?


On Wednesday, October 9, 2002 at 9:48 pm, Louis wrote:
>When I restart my computer, the only icon showing in the system tray is for Norton
>Antivirus. There are about five other icons that should be there, but they're not
>-- even though the programs themselves are running. If I load another program after
>startup is complete, e.g. AOL Instant Messenger, it appears in the systray as normal.
>Also, the icon to control volume is missing, and I can only restore it by going to
>Sound in the control panel, unchecking "Place volume icon in taskbar" and clicking
>Apply, and then rechecking it and clicking Apply again.
>What the heck is going on? I replaced my systray.exe file from the installation CD,
>so I know that's not the issue.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I remember a post on another forum where a user was having the same trouble with the volume icon. They eventually solved the problem by putting a shortcut to systray.exe in their start-up folder. Apparently the problem was something (they couldn't figure out what) preventing systray from loading properly when Windows loaded.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

You could try a right click on a blank area on your taskbar goto properties then 
untick 
"Hide inactive icons"
it may help 

Cheers HC 





On Wednesday, October 9, 2002 at 9:48 pm, Louis wrote:
>When I restart my computer, the only icon showing in the system tray is for Norton 
>Antivirus. There are about five other icons that should be there, but they're not 
>-- even though the programs themselves are running. If I load another program after 
>startup is complete, e.g. AOL Instant Messenger, it appears in the systray as normal. 
>Also, the icon to control volume is missing, and I can only restore it by going 
to 
>Sound in the control panel, unchecking "Place volume icon in taskbar" and clicking 
>Apply, and then rechecking it and clicking Apply again.
>What the heck is going on? I replaced my systray.exe file from the installation 
CD, 
>so I know that's not the issue.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Thanks for your suggestions, but none of them have helped. It's not an issue of inactive icons being hidden. Windows XP simply isn't showing the icons -- it must be some kind of bug, and I can't figure out how to circumvent it. Anyone have any other ideas?


On Wednesday, October 9, 2002 at 9:48 pm, Louis wrote:
>When I restart my computer, the only icon showing in the system tray is for Norton
>Antivirus. There are about five other icons that should be there, but they're not
>-- even though the programs themselves are running. If I load another program after
>startup is complete, e.g. AOL Instant Messenger, it appears in the systray as normal.
>Also, the icon to control volume is missing, and I can only restore it by going to
>Sound in the control panel, unchecking "Place volume icon in taskbar" and clicking
>Apply, and then rechecking it and clicking Apply again.
>What the heck is going on? I replaced my systray.exe file from the installation CD,
>so I know that's not the issue.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Just upgraded to XP and had the same problem. It seems that XP boots so fast that the Icons may not get into the system tray even thought the programs are running. I found a freeware program that allows you to delay the start of programs in then statup folder. It seems to fix the problem. Here is the link http://www.r2.com.au/downloads/index.html?id=startdelay


On Thursday, October 10, 2002 at 4:26 pm, Louis wrote:
>Thanks for your suggestions, but none of them have helped. It's not an issue of inactive
>icons being hidden. Windows XP simply isn't showing the icons -- it must be some
>kind of bug, and I can't figure out how to circumvent it.
>
>Anyone have any other ideas?
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Tried it and it sill doesn't work. I even see splash screens but no tray icon. Any other ideas?


On Wednesday, January 29, 2003 at 9:21 am, texfisk wrote:
>Just upgraded to XP and had the same problem. It seems that XP boots so fast that
>the Icons may not get into the system tray even thought the programs are running.
>I found a freeware program that allows you to delay the start of programs in then
>statup folder. It seems to fix the problem. Here is the link http://www.r2.com.au/downloads/index.html?id=startdelay
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I would guess that you have turned off the Hide inactive icons. I left the normal system programs alone and just changed my additional programs (weatherbug, calendar, webshots and a ram defrag utility) to 30 second delay. Everthing seems okay except for the speaker icon, but thats another story.


On Sunday, February 2, 2003 at 10:50 pm, Bob wrote:
>
>Tried it and it sill doesn't work. I even see splash screens but no tray icon.
>Any other ideas?
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I have exactly the same problem. I wish people would stop thinking we are idiots and offer suggestions only if you understand the problem.


On Monday, February 3, 2003 at 8:11 pm, texfisk wrote:
>I would guess that you have turned off the Hide inactive icons. I left the normal
>system programs alone and just changed my additional programs (weatherbug, calendar,
>webshots and a ram defrag utility) to 30 second delay. Everthing seems okay except
>for the speaker icon, but thats another story.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I have the same problem too and I have just spent a good hour uninstalling software in the vague hope it would highlight what the problem is. I suspect it is more involved than simply something I have installed. I did think of a virus but I have fully up-to-date Virusscan and it can't find a virus.


On Wednesday, February 5, 2003 at 1:34 am, Sean Burns wrote:
>I have exactly the same problem. I wish people would stop thinking we are idiots
>and offer suggestions only if you understand the problem.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

OK, try this... - ctl+alt+del to get up task manager - click on "Processes" tab - highlight the "explorer" process - click "End Process"... this will stop your desktop. - click on "Applications" tab - click "New Task..." - Type "explorer" and click OK This will restart the explorer which manages the desktop. With me my icons returned! Could be something to do with the startup of explorer perhaps... just a thought.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I've been having the same problem myself, interestingly if you LOG OFF and back on, instead of restarting, etc.., everything loads properly.


On Wednesday, February 5, 2003 at 5:33 am, PaulC wrote:
>OK, try this...
>
>- ctl+alt+del to get up task manager
>- click on "Processes" tab
>- highlight the "explorer" process
>- click "End Process"... this will stop your desktop.
>- click on "Applications" tab
>- click "New Task..."
>- Type "explorer" and click OK
>
>This will restart the explorer which manages the desktop. With me my icons returned!
>Could be something to do with the startup of explorer perhaps... just a thought.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Well I finally fixed it on my computer, we'll see if it works for you all.. Get a program called RegCleaner. start it up and go to the startup tab, for me it was showing Desktop loading twice one of the instances was (common user) the other was not named, I deleted the common user instance, after creating a restore point ;p After that when I restarted it not only finished booting quicker but all the icons were loaded properly into the notification area. On Wednesday, October 9, 2002 at 9:48 pm, Louis wrote:
>When I restart my computer, the only icon showing in the system tray is for Norton
>Antivirus. There are about five other icons that should be there, but they're not
>-- even though the programs themselves are running. If I load another program after
>startup is complete, e.g. AOL Instant Messenger, it appears in the systray as normal.
>Also, the icon to control volume is missing, and I can only restore it by going to
>Sound in the control panel, unchecking "Place volume icon in taskbar" and clicking
>Apply, and then rechecking it and clicking Apply again.
>What the heck is going on? I replaced my systray.exe file from the installation CD,
>so I know that's not the issue.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I've found an easier cure.  It worked for me so you could try it:-
Right-click on My Computer
Click on Manage
Expand 'Services & Applications'
Highlight 'Services'
Look through list of services on the right....
Find Universal Plug & Play Device Host
Right-click on it.
Click properties.
Change startup type to 'Disabled'
Do exactly the same with 'SSDP discovery service'
Problem should be solved.






On Wednesday, October 9, 2002 at 9:48 pm, Louis wrote:
>When I restart my computer, the only icon showing in the system tray is for Norton 
>Antivirus. There are about five other icons that should be there, but they're not 
>-- even though the programs themselves are running. If I load another program after 
>startup is complete, e.g. AOL Instant Messenger, it appears in the systray as normal. 
>Also, the icon to control volume is missing, and I can only restore it by going 
to 
>Sound in the control panel, unchecking "Place volume icon in taskbar" and clicking 
>Apply, and then rechecking it and clicking Apply again.
>What the heck is going on? I replaced my systray.exe file from the installation 
CD, 
>so I know that's not the issue.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Turned out my fix didn't work, the first time i restarted it was fine but then returned to normal. /shrug


On Thursday, February 6, 2003 at 3:05 am, Sean Burns wrote:

>I've found an easier cure.  It worked for me so you could try it:-
>Right-click on My Computer
>Click on Manage
>Expand 'Services & Applications'
>Highlight 'Services'
>Look through list of services on the right....
>Find Universal Plug & Play Device Host
>Right-click on it.
>Click properties.
>Change startup type to 'Disabled'
>Do exactly the same with 'SSDP discovery service'
>Problem should be solved.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Disabling those services worked for me as well, what are the implications? Will I need to re enable them when installing new hardware? Did you figure out what the conflict with them was?


On Thursday, February 6, 2003 at 3:05 am, Sean Burns wrote:

>I've found an easier cure.  It worked for me so you could try it:-
>Right-click on My Computer
>Click on Manage
>Expand 'Services & Applications'
>Highlight 'Services'
>Look through list of services on the right....
>Find Universal Plug & Play Device Host
>Right-click on it.
>Click properties.
>Change startup type to 'Disabled'
>Do exactly the same with 'SSDP discovery service'
>Problem should be solved.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Microsoft knows about this problem and they have told several of us to go to [control panel] [add / remove programs] [add/remove windows components] and take out the networking services (which BTW includes Plug and Play) This worked but I was concerned that since I have a home network that I need these services.. After reading all the posts here, I think the culprit is Plug and Play and not the networking service.. To answer tje copncern about turning Plug and Play back on when installing new components, The new hardware that you buy today is plug and play aware anyhow and doesn't need windows to help so I wouldn't worry about adding new hardware with Windows Plug and Play disabled.. It should find and install the compnent without any software help.. Besides, 90% of the time you need to use the manufacturers software to install the hardware anyhow.. Rick


On Thursday, February 6, 2003 at 6:41 am, Peter wrote:
>Disabling those services worked for me as well, what are the implications? Will
>I need to re enable them when installing new hardware? Did you figure out what the
>conflict with them was?
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Interesting, I couldn't find anything about this on the MS knowledge base, etc... was there an article somewhere I could read or did you get this from correspondence with MS tech support?


On Friday, February 7, 2003 at 11:01 am, Rick wrote:
>Microsoft knows about this problem and they have told several of us to go to [control
>panel] [add / remove programs] [add/remove windows components] and take out the networking
>services (which BTW includes Plug and Play)
>
>This worked but I was concerned that since I have a home network that I need these
>services.. After reading all the posts here, I think the culprit is Plug and Play
>and not the networking service..
>
>To answer tje copncern about turning Plug and Play back on when installing new components,
>The new hardware that you buy today is plug and play aware anyhow and doesn't need
>windows to help so I wouldn't worry about adding new hardware with Windows Plug and
>Play disabled.. It should find and install the compnent without any software help..
>Besides, 90% of the time you need to use the manufacturers software to install the
>hardware anyhow..
>
>
>Rick
>
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I had particularly solved this problem for a while. In my XP go to Display Properties and choose to customize desktop. Then add some web content to your desktop. After enabling the Web Desktop everytime your computer is starting, it will show all icons in tray. Also the process of starting up will be a little bit slower. Later i have changed my mainboard and you know that after this period all of your available hardware is being refound automatically (add new hardware...). After that i haven't any problems with my volume icon. Until last week, when i changed my desktop theme. After this step, my volume icon started again to disappear.


On Friday, February 7, 2003 at 1:41 pm, Peter wrote:
>Interesting, I couldn't find anything about this on the MS knowledge base, etc...
> was there an article somewhere I could read or did you get this from correspondence
>with MS tech support?
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

None of the above fixes worked for me. However, when I disabled Norton Antivirus loading with windows, the systray returned to normal. Worth a try if all else fails.


On Saturday, February 8, 2003 at 2:42 pm, Rossen Dimitriev wrote:
>
>I had particularly solved this problem for a while. In my XP go to Display Properties
>and choose to customize desktop. Then add some web content to your desktop. After
>enabling the Web Desktop everytime your computer is starting, it will show all icons
>in tray. Also the process of starting up will be a little bit slower.
>
>Later i have changed my mainboard and you know that after this period all of your
>available hardware is being refound automatically (add new hardware...). After that
>i haven't any problems with my volume icon. Until last week, when i changed my desktop
>theme. After this step, my volume icon started again to disappear.
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

The alternate answer: SysTrayHack! Simple to use, just add it to your startup group, or configure your shell to launch it automatically on startup, and you're good to go. http://desktopian.org/addons/systray2kfix.zip A common problem for folks using any shell other than explorer with Win2k, is the 'missing tray icons' incompatibility (system-level tray icons strangely fail to appear when any shell but explorer is running). But, main, the developer of the Graphite shell managed to track it down and nail the issue under Graphite, and now his fix has been massaged into shape to work with any shell, in the form of 'SysTrayHack, an item tossed together by LS devteam member Joachim Calvert/NeXTer. Copy & Paste: (from http://www.desktopian.org/appsi_comp.html)


On Wednesday, October 9, 2002 at 9:48 pm, Louis wrote:
>When I restart my computer, the only icon showing in the system tray is for Norton
>Antivirus. There are about five other icons that should be there, but they're not
>-- even though the programs themselves are running. If I load another program after
>startup is complete, e.g. AOL Instant Messenger, it appears in the systray as normal.
>Also, the icon to control volume is missing, and I can only restore it by going to
>Sound in the control panel, unchecking "Place volume icon in taskbar" and clicking
>Apply, and then rechecking it and clicking Apply again.
>What the heck is going on? I replaced my systray.exe file from the installation CD,
>so I know that's not the issue.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

And incase you're wondering, it DOES work on Windows XP!!

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Hey that worked for me, but instead of disabling the service I just uninstalled it all together. Thanks!


On Thursday, February 6, 2003 at 3:05 am, Sean Burns wrote:

>I've found an easier cure.  It worked for me so you could try it:-
>Right-click on My Computer
>Click on Manage
>Expand 'Services & Applications'
>Highlight 'Services'
>Look through list of services on the right....
>Find Universal Plug & Play Device Host
>Right-click on it.
>Click properties.
>Change startup type to 'Disabled'
>Do exactly the same with 'SSDP discovery service'
>Problem should be solved.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Thanks Sean, this worked a treat for me! I have been putting up with that for ages, thanks for the tip! Cheers, Josh


On Thursday, February 6, 2003 at 3:05 am, Sean Burns wrote:

>I've found an easier cure.  It worked for me so you could try it:-
>Right-click on My Computer
>Click on Manage
>Expand 'Services & Applications'
>Highlight 'Services'
>Look through list of services on the right....
>Find Universal Plug & Play Device Host
>Right-click on it.
>Click properties.
>Change startup type to 'Disabled'
>Do exactly the same with 'SSDP discovery service'
>Problem should be solved.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I've found another solution about this problem. You have to remove setupapi.dll (for sound icon) from your windows folder. This information can be found from Microsoft's Knowledge Base (Topic: missing printer*network* icon in system tray)

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

We have Windows XP. The task bar notification area has the printer icon when using my user sign on. When using my husbands sign on the printer icon is missing from the notification area. I have gone into customize the task bar and the printer icon is not in the current items or past items. I have also done restore defaults and it still does not show. How do I fix this so that my husband has the printer icon without messing up mine? Thank you, Donna Crozier
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Thanks, your idea works


On Wednesday, February 5, 2003 at 5:33 am, PaulC wrote:
>OK, try this...
>
>- ctl+alt+del to get up task manager
>- click on "Processes" tab
>- highlight the "explorer" process
>- click "End Process"... this will stop your desktop.
>- click on "Applications" tab
>- click "New Task..."
>- Type "explorer" and click OK
>
>This will restart the explorer which manages the desktop. With me my icons returned!
>Could be something to do with the startup of explorer perhaps... just a thought.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

That worked perfectly for me. I didn't realize so many people had this problem. So of the responces here don't work but yours does. Thanks.


On Thursday, February 6, 2003 at 3:05 am, Sean Burns wrote:
>
>I've found an easier cure. It worked for me so you could try it:-
>Right-click on My Computer
>Click on Manage
>Expand 'Services & Applications'
>Highlight 'Services'
>Look through list of services on the right....
>Find Universal Plug & Play Device Host
>Right-click on it.
>Click properties.
>Change startup type to 'Disabled'
>Do exactly the same with 'SSDP discovery service'
>Problem should be solved.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

yay.... this was the only solution that worked for me... It wasnt enough to disable plug and play, it had to be complete uninstalled! Ive tryed several different things (almost reinstalled win to get rid of it.) but nothing else worked!


On Friday, February 7, 2003 at 11:01 am, Rick wrote:
>Microsoft knows about this problem and they have told several of us to go to [control
>panel] [add / remove programs] [add/remove windows components] and take out the networking
>services (which BTW includes Plug and Play)
>
>This worked but I was concerned that since I have a home network that I need these
>services.. After reading all the posts here, I think the culprit is Plug and Play
>and not the networking service..
>
>To answer tje copncern about turning Plug and Play back on when installing new components,
>The new hardware that you buy today is plug and play aware anyhow and doesn't need
>windows to help so I wouldn't worry about adding new hardware with Windows Plug and
>Play disabled.. It should find and install the compnent without any software help..
>Besides, 90% of the time you need to use the manufacturers software to install the
>hardware anyhow..
>
>
>Rick
>
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Hi, I had the same problem, but after upgrading my chipset driver it worked just fine again...


On Wednesday, October 9, 2002 at 9:48 pm, Louis wrote:
>When I restart my computer, the only icon showing in the system tray is for Norton
>Antivirus. There are about five other icons that should be there, but they're not
>-- even though the programs themselves are running. If I load another program after
>startup is complete, e.g. AOL Instant Messenger, it appears in the systray as normal.
>Also, the icon to control volume is missing, and I can only restore it by going to
>Sound in the control panel, unchecking "Place volume icon in taskbar" and clicking
>Apply, and then rechecking it and clicking Apply again.
>What the heck is going on? I replaced my systray.exe file from the installation CD,
>so I know that's not the issue.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

problem: upon booting xp pro most of my tray icons would not appear and there was a delay in starting up. I changed "IPv6 Helper Service" and "IPv6 Internet Connection Firewall" found under services from automatic to manual. All my icons appeared on the next boot and my log file shows no errors now concerning ipv6. I use zone alarm pro for firewall and anti-virus protection. If your using the built in firewall this might turn that off.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I had this same icon problem and then I tried this suggestion and it worked. Thanks a lot PaulC.


On Wednesday, February 5, 2003 at 5:33 am, PaulC wrote:
>OK, try this...
>
>- ctl+alt+del to get up task manager
>- click on "Processes" tab
>- highlight the "explorer" process
>- click "End Process"... this will stop your desktop.
>- click on "Applications" tab
>- click "New Task..."
>- Type "explorer" and click OK
>
>This will restart the explorer which manages the desktop. With me my icons returned!
>Could be something to do with the startup of explorer perhaps... just a thought.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I tried the Log Off and then logged back on and you are right. At least it works for me.


On Thursday, February 6, 2003 at 1:06 am, Peter wrote:
>I've been having the same problem myself, interestingly if you LOG OFF and back on,
>instead of restarting, etc.., everything loads properly.
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

What you may NOT have to do.... I am adding here to the thread what you may not have to do, before all the extra time and aggravation. I found this thread at a Google search, and it is exactly the same problem I have - and I see a few possible avenues to try. I am getting most of my System Tray Icons except one main one I am trying to make appear. I went all through the "msconfig" scenario on XP and so on - making sure the program is checked properly everywhere to start at Start Up. I have Uninstalled my program (Handstory Suite) and re-installed it... no help. What you may NOT have to do..... I have some Spyware extra programs installed besides Norton AV like "SpyGuard" and "SpyBlaster" - which disable all sorts of spyware and scumware and others from downloading spyware and such through IExplorer. I had recently uploaded new definitions in these and was thinking perhaps one of the Spyware Definitions had blocked my program from starting normally. After Uninstalling them - nothing... the program icon in the system tray was still not appearing. I have seen here a few remedies to try. I also tried copying the shortcut to the "Start Up" folders in Windows Explorer - there are a couple such as "..All Users / Programs / Start Up - - - and - - - Your Name (primary user name) / Programs / Start Up - - - and - - - Default User / Programs / Start Up ... .... .... but that did not place the icon in the tray. Best of luck all, and I will be back if any of the other suggestions here work. I would really like to know the actual conflicts as well, because I also tried using the "Hide Inactive Icons" by right clicking for Properties on the Task Bar, and then clicking "Customize" and choosing the icon and all others I wanted to appear with the "Always Show" these Icons. This did not work, as when I had re-installed my program - at least then the icon appeared until I shut down my Computer. Strange, because the program and tray icon have been working fine for over a year and I do not have all sorts of excess Start Up icons in the tray.


On Wednesday, October 9, 2002 at 9:48 pm, Louis wrote:
>When I restart my computer, the only icon showing in the system tray ------xxxxxxx----cut---cut--------xxxxxxxxxxx

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

This worked for me, too. Now I'm wondering why. Maybe it is because of the security vulnerability in those two programs, which didn't have any effect until I turned on Norton Internet Security. I lost the icons shortly after I turned on NIS, although that could be coincidental. My wife's computer, which doesn't have NIS, doesn't have the icon problem. Do all the people having this problem have NIS, or at least a modern firewall program?


On Thursday, February 6, 2003 at 3:05 am, Sean Burns wrote:
>
>I've found an easier cure. It worked for me so you could try it:-
>Right-click on My Computer
>Click on Manage
>Expand 'Services & Applications'
>Highlight 'Services'
>Look through list of services on the right....
>Find Universal Plug & Play Device Host
>Right-click on it.
>Click properties.
>Change startup type to 'Disabled'
>Do exactly the same with 'SSDP discovery service'
>Problem should be solved.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

My system tray icons come and go. The most awkward is the frequent non-appearance of the icons for HandStory and Anapod, since they're needed for controlling the programs. This seems to have started since I installed SP2. Another person has suggested that the problem is that Windows doesn't have time to load them all.


On Sunday, October 10, 2004 at 11:46 pm, cbgerry wrote:
>What you may NOT have to do....
>I am adding here to the thread what you may not have to do, before all the extra
>time and aggravation. I found this thread at a Google search, and it is exactly the
>same problem I have - and I see a few possible avenues to try. I am getting most
>of my System Tray Icons except one main one I am trying to make appear. I went all
>through the "msconfig" scenario on XP and so on - making sure the program is checked
>properly everywhere to start at Start Up. I have Uninstalled my program (Handstory
>Suite) and re-installed it... no help.
>
>What you may NOT have to do..... I have some Spyware extra programs installed besides
>Norton AV like "SpyGuard" and "SpyBlaster" - which disable all sorts of spyware and
>scumware and others from downloading spyware and such through IExplorer. I had recently
>uploaded new definitions in these and was thinking perhaps one of the Spyware Definitions
>had blocked my program from starting normally. After Uninstalling them - nothing...
>the program icon in the system tray was still not appearing.
>
>I have seen here a few remedies to try. I also tried copying the shortcut to the
>"Start Up" folders in Windows Explorer - there are a couple such as "..All Users
>/ Programs / Start Up - - - and - - - Your Name (primary user name) / Programs /
>Start Up - - - and - - - Default User / Programs / Start Up ... .... .... but that
>did not place the icon in the tray. Best of luck all, and I will be back if any of
>the other suggestions here work. I would really like to know the actual conflicts
>as well, because I also tried using the "Hide Inactive Icons" by right clicking for
>Properties on the Task Bar, and then clicking "Customize" and choosing the icon and
>all others I wanted to appear with the "Always Show" these Icons. This did not work,
>as when I had re-installed my program - at least then the icon appeared until I shut
>down my Computer. Strange, because the program and tray icon have been working fine
>for over a year and I do not have all sorts of excess Start Up icons in the tray.
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Reply... Handstory Icon / Start Tray: I tried copying the icon to Start Folders, and also with me, the 'disappearence' occurred about the time of the XP SP2 Upgrade. In the new security center of the XP SP2 at Contol Panel I have made sure that the Handstory program is given access. Also now, as you mentioned, I went to > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance - and set the minimum start up of Virtual Memory to the lowest allowed which is 2M. I had previously had it set to about 30M and higher, which apparently was stopping or slowing loading at start up to first produce the memory - and as you said was denying the program by memory allocation rules. I did that as a short fix to an actual Memory Upgrade which is recommended from factory 256 to 512 ( a hundred dollar memory stick added to the Computer ). I am sure the Virtual Memory is tapped into when the ROM becomes low, which processes the operating system as opposed to files and photos memory which goes up to 2 Gigs and higher. After upgrading to Norton 2005 - the Handstory Program is now working fine again. Doing some homework with things like "system exe" and anything for Start Up or 'system tray' - I really found no information helpful. I think you are correct though that the start up memory used must be set correctly, and it seems to correct itself.


On Sunday, October 24, 2004 at 5:00 pm, Basil Clarke wrote:
>My system tray icons come and go. The most awkward is the frequent non-appearance
>of the icons for HandStory and Anapod, since they're needed for controlling the programs.
> This seems to have started since I installed SP2. Another person has suggested
>that the problem is that Windows doesn't have time to load them all.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

"Me too" - When I ran Windows Task Manager, I wasn't getting the little green square 
that showed up CPU utilisation.
I followed the instructions to kill off those two services (in my case, only SSDP 
was running), and hey presto, Task Manager works again!


> Maybe it is because of the security vulnerability in

> those two programs, which didn't have any effect

> until I turned on Norton Internet Security.

I don't have NIS here, but I was missing the icon until I disabled SSDP.
I do have Symantec antivirus, but all the firewalling here is done with hardware 
firewalls - there's no firewalling done in software.
I'm not in a position to comment on whether or not this screw-up was introduced in 
SP2 or not as our IT chap installed SP2 before handing me the machine.


I can, however, tell you that, on this PC at least (XP Pro, SP2 + a couple of hotfixes), 
if I set the service "SSDP Discovery Service" to "Automatic" OR set it to "Manual" 
and then start it manually, my "Windows Task Manager" icon fails to appear (unless 
I'm very quick - it seems that it takes SSDP a few seconds to sabotage things)

In other words, I believe it's all down to this SSDP service (at least it is here 
- I've seen other things on the web suggesting that this is not the only cause of 
missing icons - icon presence seems to be fairly flakey)



> My wife's computer, which doesn't have NIS,

> doesn't have the icon problem.

But does it have SSDP disabled (or at least not started)?
If there's nothing that'll make SSDP start up, it won't cause the icon problem.
From the (very) brief description of the SSDP service, it looks aimed at networked 
stuff, so if your wife's computer isn't networked, SSDP may not start up (and if 
it is networked, you'd want firewall & anti-virus stuff on it...)



> Do all the people having this problem have NIS, or

> at least a modern firewall program?

We've got Symantec anti-virus here, doing file-scan stuff mainly - nothing in the 
way of inbound or outbound network traffic on the desktop PCs.
Our firewall is a (seperate) PC running smoothwall.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I've read all of the above posts and I have not seen any true solutions to this problem. 
I took it upon myself to do some thorough investigation into this matter with the 
missing system tray icons (I have this problem as well).

The problem began for me after the installation of Network Associates (McAfee) VirusScan 
Enterprise v7.1.0. After the installation of the software, my system tray icons would 
be missing after most boot-ups.

The problem is NOT related to Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, as I had this problem 
both prior AND after the upgrade to SP2.

I reformatted a second computer and did a new install of Windows XP Pro w/SP2. All 
system tray activity was normal. I then installed VirusScan Enterprise v7.1.0 and 
the problem with the icons began again.

I have scoured the McAfee knowledgebase in hopes of finding a solution, but there 
are none. I suggest that everybody who has this problem bring this to McAfee's attention 
in hopes that they provide an official patch or fix for this problem.

Once again, I am ABSOLUTELY SURE that the missing system tray icons are the fault 
of VirusScan v7.1.0. There MUST be something that this program triggers that causes 
the system tray icons to disappear.








On Wednesday, October 27, 2004 at 7:12 am, Peter Darton wrote:

>"Me too" - When I ran Windows Task Manager, I wasn't getting the little green square 

>that showed up CPU utilisation.

>I followed the instructions to kill off those two services (in my case, only SSDP 

>was running), and hey presto, Task Manager works again!

>

>> Maybe it is because of the security vulnerability in

>> those two programs, which didn't have any effect

>> until I turned on Norton Internet Security.

>

>I don't have NIS here, but I was missing the icon until I disabled SSDP.

>I do have Symantec antivirus, but all the firewalling here is done with hardware 

>firewalls - there's no firewalling done in software.

>I'm not in a position to comment on whether or not this screw-up was introduced 
in 

>SP2 or not as our IT chap installed SP2 before handing me the machine.

>

>

>I can, however, tell you that, on this PC at least (XP Pro, SP2 + a couple of hotfixes), 

>if I set the service "SSDP Discovery Service" to "Automatic" OR set it to "Manual" 

>and then start it manually, my "Windows Task Manager" icon fails to appear (unless 

>I'm very quick - it seems that it takes SSDP a few seconds to sabotage things)

>

>In other words, I believe it's all down to this SSDP service (at least it is here 

>- I've seen other things on the web suggesting that this is not the only cause of 

>missing icons - icon presence seems to be fairly flakey)

>

>

>> My wife's computer, which doesn't have NIS,

>> doesn't have the icon problem.

>

>But does it have SSDP disabled (or at least not started)?

>If there's nothing that'll make SSDP start up, it won't cause the icon problem.

>From the (very) brief description of the SSDP service, it looks aimed at networked 

>stuff, so if your wife's computer isn't networked, SSDP may not start up (and if 

>it is networked, you'd want firewall & anti-virus stuff on it...)

>

>

>> Do all the people having this problem have NIS, or

>> at least a modern firewall program?

>

>We've got Symantec anti-virus here, doing file-scan stuff mainly - nothing in the 

>way of inbound or outbound network traffic on the desktop PCs.

>Our firewall is a (seperate) PC running smoothwall.
 

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I've also been doing some further investigation elsewhere.
Firstly, I've found that whilst stopping the SSDP service does allow the Task Manager's 
system tray icon to appear, this cure does not last forever, and it isn't an immediate 
100% fix either.

However, I've been in contact with a few other folks, and from what I can tell, people 
who have XP, have it set to "classic look" and have Symantec Anti-Virus suffer from 
this problem.
Obviously I don't know if everyone with this combination suffers from this problem, 
but, prior to reading your message, everyone I'd come into contact with who had this 
problem has this combination.
I concurr with your "it's not SP2" conclusion - folks I've talked to confirm this.



> The problem began for me after the installation of

> Network Associates (McAfee) VirusScan Enterprise

> v7.1.0. After the installation of the software, my

> system tray icons would be missing after most

> boot-ups.

Well you're the first person (I've seen) to report this problem who hasn't got Symantec 
Anti-Virus installed.
This certainly widens the scope a lot, unless they both have some other internal 
component in common (I must confess I'm very ignorant of the internal relationships 
between the different anti-virus products - I know a lot of companies have merged 
and renamed themselves, and others share licenced technologies, but I'm unsure of 
details).

So, I think we can therefore conclude that it isn't SP2's fault but it IS something 
to do with Anti-Virus software.

I'm coming to the conclusion that this sort of thing is unlikely to get sorted until 
a big customer raises a revenue-impact level support call.
I'm going to see if I can pursuade our IT chap to start poking Symantec about this, 
but I don't hold much hope to be honest.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

My virus checker is Trend PC-cillin, as it has been all along, and the problem only goes back a few weeks. Also, I use the new XP look, not the Classic look. So I don't have either element in this combination. What is new is that, since I installed SP2, I have a firewall enabled. I do have a large number of programs installed, but can't pin down the start of the problem to any one of them.


On Monday, November 8, 2004 at 5:25 am, Peter Darton wrote:
>I've also been doing some further investigation elsewhere.
>Firstly, I've found that whilst stopping the SSDP service does allow the Task Manager's
>system tray icon to appear, this cure does not last forever, and it isn't an immediate
>100% fix either.
>
>However, I've been in contact with a few other folks, and from what I can tell, people
>who have XP, have it set to "classic look" and have Symantec Anti-Virus suffer from
>this problem.
>Obviously I don't know if everyone with this combination suffers from this problem,
>but, prior to reading your message, everyone I'd come into contact with who had this
>problem has this combination.
>I concurr with your "it's not SP2" conclusion - folks I've talked to confirm this.
>
>
>> The problem began for me after the installation of
>> Network Associates (McAfee) VirusScan Enterprise
>> v7.1.0. After the installation of the software, my
>> system tray icons would be missing after most
>> boot-ups.
>
>Well you're the first person (I've seen) to report this problem who hasn't got Symantec
>Anti-Virus installed.
>This certainly widens the scope a lot, unless they both have some other internal
>component in common (I must confess I'm very ignorant of the internal relationships
>between the different anti-virus products - I know a lot of companies have merged
>and renamed themselves, and others share licenced technologies, but I'm unsure of
>details).
>
>So, I think we can therefore conclude that it isn't SP2's fault but it IS something
>to do with Anti-Virus software.
>
>I'm coming to the conclusion that this sort of thing is unlikely to get sorted until
>a big customer raises a revenue-impact level support call.
>I'm going to see if I can pursuade our IT chap to start poking Symantec about this,
>but I don't hold much hope to be honest.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

i have the same problem ... no sound or volume icon in the sytem tray ... i dont even get any sound from my speakers .. tried re-installing drivers .. didnt work .. can anyone help?


On Monday, November 8, 2004 at 2:03 pm, Basil Clarke wrote:
>My virus checker is Trend PC-cillin, as it has been all along, and the problem only
>goes back a few weeks. Also, I use the new XP look, not the Classic look. So I
>don't have either element in this combination. What is new is that, since I installed
>SP2, I have a firewall enabled. I do have a large number of programs installed,
>but can't pin down the start of the problem to any one of them.
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I've Win XP SP2 and Viruscan 7.1.0 installed. The problem of missing system tray icon appears to occur after I updated the scan engine of Viruscan to 4400. And I solved it by disabling UPnP and SSDP.


On Tuesday, November 9, 2004 at 6:21 am, sharat wrote:
>i have the same problem ... no sound or volume icon in the sytem tray ... i dont
>even get any sound from my speakers .. tried re-installing drivers .. didnt work
>..
>can anyone help?
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

This is beginning to make more sense to me now. The majority of the time that I lose 
my icons upon log-in is when I relocate to a new wireless network (at school). When 
I boot up the first time at home, the icons are missing as well. Upon subsequent 
reboots at home, the icons are there sometimes.

I think the problem is that UPnP and SSDP are too busy trying to find out if there 
are any UPnP devices on the network. Besides disabling UPnP and SSDP, logging off 
and back on DOES work for me.

So far, for the past few times I have started or rebooted my laptop, I have not had 
the problem. When it comes back, I will try out disabling the UPnP and SSDP services.







On Tuesday, November 9, 2004 at 6:37 am, timmeh wrote:

>

>I've Win XP SP2 and Viruscan 7.1.0 installed. The problem of missing system tray 

>icon appears to occur after I updated the scan engine of Viruscan to 4400. And I 

>solved it by disabling UPnP and SSDP. 

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Hope this helps...

Bottom line is that you want your system tray to run at startup....system tray includes the windows sound icon, network connections, power monitor etc.

PLEASE CREATE RESTORE POINT NOW!!!!

If you mess up at any point just restore to this restore point and start again
NOTE: Don't type in the quotes when entering data below.
None of this will affect third party applications running in your computer's system tray as systray.exe and the others are independent.

Run the window registry editor (START, RUN, regedit)
You need to create a new String Value called "systray" in:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Then give in the value: "C:\WINDOWS\system32\systray.exe"

To do all this:

1. START, RUN, type "regedit", hit enter

2. Once in the Registry Editor, navigate the left directory tree to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

3. Then right click on the right window pane, click new, then string value.

4. Give the new string value the name "systray"

5. Your new value should now have the name "systray", the type "REG_SZ", and no data.

6. Right click on your new "systray" value and click "modify".

7. Now give "systray" the value data: "C:\WINDOWS\system32\systray.exe"

8. Click ok and close the Registry Editor.

9. Restart your computer.

You should now have your systray back at boot.

Hope this helps.

Email me if anybody gets stuck.

Brent
brent.martel@gmail.com
CANADA




On Tuesday, November 9, 2004 at 8:41 am, Kenny wrote:
>This is beginning to make more sense to me now. The majority of the time that I lose
>my icons upon log-in is when I relocate to a new wireless network (at school). When
>I boot up the first time at home, the icons are missing as well. Upon subsequent
>reboots at home, the icons are there sometimes.
>
>I think the problem is that UPnP and SSDP are too busy trying to find out if there
>are any UPnP devices on the network. Besides disabling UPnP and SSDP, logging off
>and back on DOES work for me.
>
>So far, for the past few times I have started or rebooted my laptop, I have not had
>the problem. When it comes back, I will try out disabling the UPnP and SSDP services.
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Greetings!

I have had this problem too and 2 of my icons (sound and battery meter) appears and 
disappears randomly. I've tried many of the suggested solutions discussed on this 
forum and some of them worked.

Nonetheless, I've come to realized that these solutions are only temporary. Who knows 
one day you might need to turn back on the UPnP and SSDC you disabled?

I've found myself a better solution. That is to turn the login mode to windows classic. 
CTRL PANEL --> User accounts --> Change the way users login and out (or something 
like that)

Requiring a password at startup kinda gives UPnP and SSDC time to initialize before 
the systray loads up when entering windows.

Hope his helps!
PCM


P.S. I've searched all over the internet and this forum is the only relavant help 
I found. So I guess I just contribute a little on my part to keep this community 
going.







On Wednesday, October 9, 2002 at 9:48 pm, Louis wrote:

>When I restart my computer, the only icon showing in the system tray is for Norton 

>Antivirus. There are about five other icons that should be there, but they're not 

>-- even though the programs themselves are running. If I load another program after 

>startup is complete, e.g. AOL Instant Messenger, it appears in the systray as normal. 

>Also, the icon to control volume is missing, and I can only restore it by going 
to 

>Sound in the control panel, unchecking "Place volume icon in taskbar" and clicking 

>Apply, and then rechecking it and clicking Apply again.

>What the heck is going on? I replaced my systray.exe file from the installation 
CD, 

>so I know that's not the issue. 

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Hi, unfortunately I don't have any real solutions either. I'll just describe the way the problem occurs for me so maybe someone smarter can narrow down the causes better. The only solution that works for me is the user-logon with explit selection of a user account. Brent's registry addition didn't make any difference at all. System: Win XP German, icons started to disappear after installing SP2. I completely deactivated the windows security features. I'm running Norton Antivirus 2002 which updated itself after installing XP SP2, and Tiny Personal Firewall. However, even if I deactivate both, the icons still appear randomly, sometimes they're there, sometimes they're not. On my machine it's only icons for little helper programs that disappear, nothing system relevant, but it's still a pain int the a... So, if anyone has any more ideas, please broadcast to the world! Oliver

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I have the same problem, started before SP2 installation... I tryed everythings and it continue, but last time I done a "chkdsk /f /r", to find and solve some bad cluster, and I check some difference. Now icons appear every time, but i don't know that this is the real solution, because I sow a time icons disappear again! bye bye


On Friday, November 19, 2004 at 3:14 am, Oliver wrote:
>Hi,
>
>unfortunately I don't have any real solutions either. I'll just describe the way
>the problem occurs for me so maybe someone smarter can narrow down the causes better.
>The only solution that works for me is the user-logon with explit selection of a
>user account. Brent's registry addition didn't make any difference at all.
>System: Win XP German, icons started to disappear after installing SP2. I completely
>deactivated the windows security features. I'm running Norton Antivirus 2002 which
>updated itself after installing XP SP2, and Tiny Personal Firewall. However, even
>if I deactivate both, the icons still appear randomly, sometimes they're there, sometimes
>they're not. On my machine it's only icons for little helper programs that disappear,
>nothing system relevant, but it's still a pain int the a... So, if anyone has any
>more ideas, please broadcast to the world!
>
>Oliver

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

replying to missing volume icon.


On Saturday, February 8, 2003 at 2:42 pm, Rossen Dimitriev wrote:
>
>I had particularly solved this problem for a while. In my XP go to Display Properties
>and choose to customize desktop. Then add some web content to your desktop. After
>enabling the Web Desktop everytime your computer is starting, it will show all icons
>in tray. Also the process of starting up will be a little bit slower.
>
>Later i have changed my mainboard and you know that after this period all of your
>available hardware is being refound automatically (add new hardware...). After that
>i haven't any problems with my volume icon. Until last week, when i changed my desktop
>theme. After this step, my volume icon started again to disappear.
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I have Win XP SP2 and Viruscan 7.1.0 installed. Had the random missing Icons and solved it by disabling UPnP and SSDP. Closing a session and login on again works too but anoying. Thanks for the solution.


On Monday, November 22, 2004 at 12:50 am, lani wrote:
>replying to missing volume icon.
>
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I'm exactly in the same situation here. After installing McAfee Virusscan Enterprise 8.0, I noticed that most of my system tray icons were gone after rebooting. So I started googling and came across this thread. For me, the trick with disabling UPnP and SSDP doesn't work. The services were not even running in the first place. What I did notice however, is that when I go to the taskbar configuration where you can set whether the icons should be hidden or not, the history of the icons shows all icons wrong! Most of them have the image of a folder instead of their normal icon. Others do have a normal icon but the wrong one (e.g. Mozilla shows the icon of the iTouch logitech app). Maybe this is related, maybe not. BTW, I already had a similar problem with wrong icons being displayed in the installed applications list when you go to Add/Remove Programs, and that on multiple PCs. Also never found what was the cause (not that I did a thorough investigation).


On Saturday, November 6, 2004 at 9:19 pm, Kenny wrote:
>The problem began for me after the installation of Network Associates (McAfee) VirusScan
>Enterprise v7.1.0. After the installation of the software, my system tray icons would
>be missing after most boot-ups.
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I wouldn't be too sure... I don't have VirusScan and have the problem... the uninstalling of the networking services worked for me... and seems to be working well. (several reboots) Try That one...


On Saturday, November 6, 2004 at 9:19 pm, Kenny wrote:
>I've read all of the above posts and I have not seen any true solutions to this problem.
>I took it upon myself to do some thorough investigation into this matter with the
>missing system tray icons (I have this problem as well).
>
>The problem began for me after the installation of Network Associates (McAfee) VirusScan
>Enterprise v7.1.0. After the installation of the software, my system tray icons would
>be missing after most boot-ups.
>
>The problem is NOT related to Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, as I had this problem
>both prior AND after the upgrade to SP2.
>
>I reformatted a second computer and did a new install of Windows XP Pro w/SP2. All
>system tray activity was normal. I then installed VirusScan Enterprise v7.1.0 and
>the problem with the icons began again.
>
>I have scoured the McAfee knowledgebase in hopes of finding a solution, but there
>are none. I suggest that everybody who has this problem bring this to McAfee's attention
>in hopes that they provide an official patch or fix for this problem.
>
>Once again, I am ABSOLUTELY SURE that the missing system tray icons are the fault
>of VirusScan v7.1.0. There MUST be something that this program triggers that causes
>the system tray icons to disappear.
>
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

This problem started to me just today. I recently got a new computer, just a few days ago. It came with Norton AntiVirus 2004. Runs Windows XP Home. I didn't have this problem until one of my games locked up and I had to turn off the computer by holding down the power button. When I turned it back on my system tray icons were gone! If I open up new programs (such as iTunes) that aren't part of my system's startup the icons work. So it is only the icons that are supposed to come on with startup.


On Wednesday, December 1, 2004 at 3:47 pm, Peter Z wrote:
>I wouldn't be too sure... I don't have VirusScan and have the problem... the uninstalling
>of the networking services worked for me... and seems to be working well. (several
>reboots)
>
>Try That one...
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Go to this link and download recommended reg edit program - it really works! http://www.digiportal.com/support/choicemail/technotes/notes/nosystrayicon.htm


On Wednesday, October 9, 2002 at 9:48 pm, Louis wrote:
>When I restart my computer, the only icon showing in the system tray is for Norton
>Antivirus. There are about five other icons that should be there, but they're not
>-- even though the programs themselves are running. If I load another program after
>startup is complete, e.g. AOL Instant Messenger, it appears in the systray as normal.
>Also, the icon to control volume is missing, and I can only restore it by going to
>Sound in the control panel, unchecking "Place volume icon in taskbar" and clicking
>Apply, and then rechecking it and clicking Apply again.
>What the heck is going on? I replaced my systray.exe file from the installation CD,
>so I know that's not the issue.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Tried it, didn't change a thing... The icons for my little helper programs still didn't appear. All the system icons are there anyway.


On Thursday, December 2, 2004 at 5:38 pm, Paul Sterbentz wrote:
>Go to this link and download recommended reg edit program - it really works! http://www.digiportal.com/support/choicemail/technotes/notes/nosystrayicon.htm
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Brent ...

Tried your reghack with no success. I never had the problem on my laptop (XP Pro, Classic display) until I installed SP2. I have no Symantec of McAfee products installed, but run AVG 7.1 and ZoneAlarm 5.5 on startup, along with a number of other programs which I want to run in the background.

On initial boot, only five or six of sixteen icons appear. Inactive icons are not hidden. The solution I've used since day one is to log off and back on, but that's a nuisance. I've not yet installed SP2 on my desktop computer, but will be interested to see if the problem is repeated, since so many of the posts refer to laptops.


On Thursday, November 11, 2004 at 6:23 pm, Brent wrote:

Hope this helps...

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I did find a solution which works (for me). Several posts in this thread have mentioned UPnP and SSDP, but I found that just disabling UPnP was the answer for me.

1. Open Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs.

2. In the sidebar, click on Add/Remove Windows Components.

3. Scroll down to Networking Services, select it, and click the Details... button.

4. Uncheck UPnP User Interface.

5. OK your way out, close Add/Remove Programs, and reboot.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

The problem is that Microsoft's desire to make XP boot up faster inspired them to make everything load at once and the system tray is loading before the apps that have icons in the system tray are loading. If logging off and logging back on (not restarting) fixes your system tray then that is definitely your problem. All virus scanners as well as the plug and play service are system hogs which exacerbates the problem. The workarounds are: 1) Make your system tray load last 2) Give your computer more time to boot 3) Load less things at start up There are various methods and utilties for doing these some of which have been mentioned.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I have a problem on my laptop where the battery icon does not appear.

It seems to be the case that XP just plain and simple loads too fast.

See Tech-Pro's write up on this problem...
http://www.tech-pro.net/howto_013.html

They have a program (http://www.tech-pro.net/startup.html#smgr) where the user can 
set the order in which the system tray loads programs. 
Useful because i can set my battery monitar at 1st priority.




 







On Tuesday, December 14, 2004 at 12:01 am, Grond wrote:

>

>The problem is that Microsoft's desire to make XP boot up faster inspired them to 

>make everything load at once and the system tray is loading before the apps that 

>have icons in the system tray are loading. If logging off and logging back on (not 

>restarting) fixes your system tray then that is definitely your problem. All virus 

>scanners as well as the plug and play service are system hogs which exacerbates 
the 

>problem. The workarounds are:

>1) Make your system tray load last

>2) Give your computer more time to boot

>3) Load less things at start up

>There are various methods and utilties for doing these some of which have been mentioned. 

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

While I tried many of the solutions listed here, including the UPNP disabling and 
systray.exe registry entry, the only one I found to work is listed below, from an 
above post. The following should be pasted into a text file and saved with an extension 
of .reg in order to work.

---cut_and_paste_from_here---
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoTrayItemsDisplay"=dword:00000000
---end_cut_and_paste---

I've copied/pasted it here in order to keep the solution available in the event that 
DigiPortal Software no longer hosts the file or provides the solution. Thank you 
all for providing your solutions; I've seen that each one has helped at least one 
other person and I am sure that they appreciate your feedback also.







On Thursday, December 2, 2004 at 5:38 pm, Paul Sterbentz wrote:

>Go to this link and download recommended reg edit program - it really works! http://www.digiportal.com/support/choicemail/technotes/notes/nosystrayicon.htm
 

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Well,,,,, this one worked for me. Once I get to the desktop the cpu keeps crankin' for a bit, but I got all my icons back! I've restarted 4 or 5 times and it seems to be okay. XP Pro, SP2, NIS 2004 Pro, NSW 2005 Premium, Athlon 64 3000, k8n-e mobo.


On Monday, December 13, 2004 at 7:21 am, JSS3rd wrote:
>I did find a solution which works (for me). Several posts in this thread
>have mentioned UPnP and SSDP, but I found that just disabling UPnP was the answer
>for me.
>
>

1. Open Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs.

2. In the sidebar, click on Add/Remove Windows Components.

3. Scroll down to Networking Services, select it, and click the Details...
>button.

4. Uncheck UPnP User Interface.

5. OK your way out, close Add/Remove Programs, and reboot.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

The problem started for me right after installing SP2 and I've tried almost everything that has been discussed through out this conversation without any luck. Yet, after installing Microsoft’s Anti-Spam software the problem seems to have gone away. Since installing I’ve rebooted at least ten times and no problem with missing icons. I wonder if anyone else has had the same results. ~JK


On Wednesday, October 9, 2002 at 9:48 pm, Louis wrote:
>When I restart my computer, the only icon showing in the system tray is for Norton
>Antivirus. There are about five other icons that should be there, but they're not
>-- even though the programs themselves are running. If I load another program after
>startup is complete, e.g. AOL Instant Messenger, it appears in the systray as normal.
>Also, the icon to control volume is missing, and I can only restore it by going to
>Sound in the control panel, unchecking "Place volume icon in taskbar" and clicking
>Apply, and then rechecking it and clicking Apply again.
>What the heck is going on? I replaced my systray.exe file from the installation CD,
>so I know that's not the issue.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Open "My Network Places" under Network Task look for "Hide Icon for Networked UPnP devices" click on it, then when windows is finished copying or deleting files or changing the configuration it should change to "Sho icons for Networked UPnp devices". That worked for me


On Wednesday, October 9, 2002 at 9:48 pm, Louis wrote:
>When I restart my computer, the only icon showing in the system tray is for Norton
>Antivirus. There are about five other icons that should be there, but they're not
>-- even though the programs themselves are running. If I load another program after
>startup is complete, e.g. AOL Instant Messenger, it appears in the systray as normal.
>Also, the icon to control volume is missing, and I can only restore it by going to
>Sound in the control panel, unchecking "Place volume icon in taskbar" and clicking
>Apply, and then rechecking it and clicking Apply again.
>What the heck is going on? I replaced my systray.exe file from the installation CD,
>so I know that's not the issue.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Disabling uPnP seems to be the only fulproof solution to this annoying problem. Apparently the uPnP sevices somehow interfere with the antivirus software while it's initializing.The down side od not having uPnP enabled and running is not being able to use P2P networking software and hardware (such as network storage devices) that utilize uPnP. Funny thing is, my poky P2 machine (running XP SP2) is just fine. The problem only occurs on my P4.


On Monday, January 17, 2005 at 10:33 am, Marco wrote:
>Open "My Network Places" under Network Task look for "Hide Icon for Networked UPnP
>devices" click on it, then when windows is finished copying or deleting files or
>changing the configuration it should change to "Sho icons for Networked UPnp devices".
>That worked for me
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I also Googled looking for answers to this problem and found this site. Wanted to let everyone know that disabling uPnP worked for me. I knew I was missing the power and volume icons, and now there's a few others there that I didn't even realize were gone. It's a new laptop, Inspiron 9200, so WinXP SP2 was already installed and note I'm using the Dell/McAfee SecurityCenter since there were some that suspected the antivirus software. One question though, what exactly is the uPnP and will I ever need to enable it for anything in the future? Oh, and thanks to everyone for the solution.


On Wednesday, January 19, 2005 at 1:31 pm, George Zimek wrote:
>Disabling uPnP seems to be the only fulproof solution to this annoying problem. Apparently
>the uPnP sevices somehow interfere with the antivirus software while
>it's initializing.The down side od not having uPnP enabled and running is not being
>able to use P2P networking software and hardware (such as network storage devices)
>that utilize uPnP. Funny thing is, my
>poky P2 machine (running XP SP2) is just fine. The
>problem only occurs on my P4.
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Thanks! This worked for me.


On Thursday, February 6, 2003 at 3:05 am, Sean Burns wrote:
>
>I've found an easier cure. It worked for me so you could try it:-
>Right-click on My Computer
>Click on Manage
>Expand 'Services & Applications'
>Highlight 'Services'
>Look through list of services on the right....
>Find Universal Plug & Play Device Host
>Right-click on it.
>Click properties.
>Change startup type to 'Disabled'
>Do exactly the same with 'SSDP discovery service'
>Problem should be solved.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I got the same problem try to log out and log in again. Click this link for more information: http://www.tech-pro.net/howto_013.html


On Wednesday, October 9, 2002 at 9:48 pm, Louis wrote:
>When I restart my computer, the only icon showing in the system tray is for Norton
>Antivirus. There are about five other icons that should be there, but they're not
>-- even though the programs themselves are running. If I load another program after
>startup is complete, e.g. AOL Instant Messenger, it appears in the systray as normal.
>Also, the icon to control volume is missing, and I can only restore it by going to
>Sound in the control panel, unchecking "Place volume icon in taskbar" and clicking
>Apply, and then rechecking it and clicking Apply again.
>What the heck is going on? I replaced my systray.exe file from the installation CD,
>so I know that's not the issue.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Thanks that worked for me!


On Wednesday, February 5, 2003 at 5:33 am, PaulC wrote:
>OK, try this...
>
>- ctl+alt+del to get up task manager
>- click on "Processes" tab
>- highlight the "explorer" process
>- click "End Process"... this will stop your desktop.
>- click on "Applications" tab
>- click "New Task..."
>- Type "explorer" and click OK
>
>This will restart the explorer which manages the desktop. With me my icons returned!
>Could be something to do with the startup of explorer perhaps... just a thought.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

If anyone is still following this, I had the same problem.  Even though I still could 
not find out what was causing it.  I have a feeling something in the TweakUI program 
did it, but not certain.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

NoTrayIcons    REG_BINARY     01 00 00 00

There might be an entry like or something very similar, I do not have the entry in 
front of me, because I removed it and rebooted and got my tray icons back.







On Monday, February 7, 2005 at 7:41 pm, woppenhe wrote:

>Thanks that worked for me!

>

>

> 

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I did not have an entry like that in my registry. I had to use the above procedure twice, and then it seemed to stick, and I have had no further trouble.


On Monday, February 14, 2005 at 6:34 pm, Dreamer wrote:
>If anyone is still following this, I had the same problem. Even though I still could
>not find out what was causing it. I have a feeling something in the TweakUI program
>did it, but not certain.
>
>HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
>
>NoTrayIcons REG_BINARY 01 00 00 00
>
>There might be an entry like or something very similar, I do not have the entry in
>front of me, because I removed it and rebooted and got my tray icons back.
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Well everyone, Guess what, I TOO have this problem. I just got off from some interesting reading and apparently, all this is A BUG. O.K. nothing new, but my point is, start up is too quick to enable certain icons to appear in the notification bar, no matter what you do, other than the multitude of - BANDAIDE - fixes above. Personally, disabling Plug and Play is not he answer, it works, but it's not an answer. If you need Plug and Play it wont be there. So, after I thought no one would ever complain about the SPEED of boot up, this is where the problem lies and Microsoft has got to find some sort of solution, if they ever do. So I repeat it's a bug, no need for Reg hits etc...all we're doing is compensating. But I know, it's aggrivating as heck!!Best solution in my opinion, Log On with a password, this gives more than ample time to load all the icons in the NOT Area. Anyway, carryon all!


On Monday, February 14, 2005 at 10:12 pm, woppenhe wrote:
>I did not have an entry like that in my registry. I had to use the above procedure
>twice, and then it seemed to stick, and I have had no further trouble.
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

It was interesting to see that so many other people have had the problem of icons missing form the system tray, which seemed to occur with me when I installed SP2. The solution mentioned before of logging off and then logging back on works for me and it really takes less time then going back and bringing up the individual icons one wants, particularly if many of them are missing. Some og the other solutions mentioned did not work with my computer. For example, I downloaded and ran systray.reg. Not only did I still have missing icons, but my monitor display was altered in a way that does not usually happen. I also tried deleting setupapi.dll from the windows-system 32 folder, but XP wouldn’t let me delete the file.


On Wednesday, January 19, 2005 at 1:31 pm, George Zimek wrote:
>Disabling uPnP seems to be the only fulproof solution to this annoying problem. Apparently
>the uPnP sevices somehow interfere with the antivirus software while
>it's initializing.The down side od not having uPnP enabled and running is not being
>able to use P2P networking software and hardware (such as network storage devices)
>that utilize uPnP. Funny thing is, my
>poky P2 machine (running XP SP2) is just fine. The
>problem only occurs on my P4.
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I also have this problem, I am not sure when it started .. maybe when I installed 
MS Antispyware. I don't have McAfee or Norton, however I do have a few other programs 
which I have had for a long time so they arn't the problem.

Restarting explorer worked, but I wish it didn't happen in the first place.

Hopefully MS can come up with a proper fix for this as it is rather inconvenient 
at times.

Anymore assistance from anyone would be greatly appreciated.

Peace.








On Wednesday, October 9, 2002 at 9:48 pm, Louis wrote:

>When I restart my computer, the only icon showing in the system tray is for Norton 

>Antivirus. There are about five other icons that should be there, but they're not 

>-- even though the programs themselves are running. If I load another program after 

>startup is complete, e.g. AOL Instant Messenger, it appears in the systray as normal. 

>Also, the icon to control volume is missing, and I can only restore it by going 
to 

>Sound in the control panel, unchecking "Place volume icon in taskbar" and clicking 

>Apply, and then rechecking it and clicking Apply again.

>What the heck is going on? I replaced my systray.exe file from the installation 
CD, 

>so I know that's not the issue. 

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I also have this problem, trouble is those two services that should be disabled to fix it are ALREADY disbaled, and its not my volume icon that is giving me the trouble, its my mp3 browser icon (notmad explorer), my firewall (sygate), bluetooth places and objectdock. I have tried practically every solution in this thread and I have also triede bootvis to try and locate the problem to no avail.... Its driving me up the wall, I dont want to have to log in with a password every time :/ (that fixes it btw - as does logging out/killing explorer)

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I actually log-in to windows but still have the problem of missing icons ...







On Sunday, March 6, 2005 at 5:06 am, ripkord wrote:

>I also have this problem, trouble is those two services that should be disabled 
to 

>fix it are ALREADY disbaled, and its not my volume icon that is giving me the trouble, 

>its my mp3 browser icon (notmad explorer), my firewall (sygate), bluetooth places 

>and objectdock.

>

>I have tried practically every solution in this thread and I have also triede bootvis 

>to try and locate the problem to no avail....

>

>Its driving me up the wall, I dont want to have to log in with a password every 
time 

>:/ (that fixes it btw - as does logging out/killing explorer) 

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Oh yeah, I never actually tried logging in more than once - that doesnt solve it after all... Damn... there must be a solution - BTW I dont have any norton products installed.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I do not speak the English well, but I mean to them to you that I had same the problems that you. Today with the new update of the Trend antivirus they was solved


On Sunday, March 6, 2005 at 2:33 pm, Drewe wrote:
>I actually log-in to windows but still have the problem of missing icons ...
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I was having the same problem the sound icon would not load to the system tray on reboot. So I made a shortcut and put it in quick launch that my work around.


On Thursday, March 10, 2005 at 2:04 pm, roberto massa wrote:
>I do not speak the English well, but I mean to them to you that I had same the problems
>that you. Today with the new update of the Trend antivirus they was solved
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I have an Athlon 900, 256MB, 80GB. I've recently reinstalled WinXP Pro from scratch (SP1). In about 2 days (after all the updates, including SP2), my notification area began to show the behavior described in this thread. I saw the problem when I've put taskmgr.exe to load in the startup folder. Most of the time, the CPU usage icon don't show up in tray at boot up. Neither when I close and reopen Task Manager, either by ctrl-alt-del or right-clicking the taskbar. After trying every work-around here, and none of them worked for me, I started to think about the problem... sure it's related to timing, because sometimes it works, but most of the time it doesn't. Enabling and disabling services should bring some clue about the problem, but in fact it didn't. What worked for me was optimize the system with bootvis, after about 2 days using the computer. I think the bug is somewhat related to timing or memory allocation.


On Sunday, March 6, 2005 at 2:33 pm, Drewe wrote:
>I actually log-in to windows but still have the problem of missing icons ...
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

My solution is to install Startright which takes over the startup process and puts in delays (variable). It's free


On Wednesday, October 9, 2002 at 9:48 pm, Louis wrote:
>When I restart my computer, the only icon showing in the system tray is for Norton
>Antivirus. There are about five other icons that should be there, but they're not
>-- even though the programs themselves are running. If I load another program after
>startup is complete, e.g. AOL Instant Messenger, it appears in the systray as normal.
>Also, the icon to control volume is missing, and I can only restore it by going to
>Sound in the control panel, unchecking "Place volume icon in taskbar" and clicking
>Apply, and then rechecking it and clicking Apply again.
>What the heck is going on? I replaced my systray.exe file from the installation CD,
>so I know that's not the issue.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I had this problem with icons disappearing from my notebook system tray. This was after I tried installing XPSP2, but had to uninstall it because it caused my Outlook Express to stop retrieving emails. I discovered that login out and back in using an user account\profile with password helped to restore some icons to the system tray. This worked, but sometimes not all the icons would appear. I ran the uninstall of the Universal Plug and Play feature from the Add\Remove Windows components and it fixed the problem. When I re-installed the UPnP support, the problem returned. I disabled the UPnP service and the the SSDP Service and the problem has gone away. I am leaving the UPnP disabled since I don't need it. I don't have any network PnP devices that would require this feature. So, the UPnP can stay disabled along with the SSDP Service, which searches for UPnP network devices.


On Saturday, February 26, 2005 at 8:12 pm, Alan wrote:
>It was interesting to see that so many other people have had the problem of icons
>missing form the system tray, which seemed to occur with me when I installed SP2.
>The solution mentioned before of logging off and then logging back on works for me
>and it really takes less time then going back and bringing up the individual icons
>one wants, particularly if many of them are missing. Some og the other solutions
>mentioned did not work with my computer. For example, I downloaded and ran systray.reg.
>Not only did I still have missing icons, but my monitor display was altered in a
>way that does not usually happen. I also tried deleting setupapi.dll from the windows-system
>32 folder, but XP wouldn’t let me delete the file.
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Thanks for all the posts everyone has done. It is good to know that the user community is doing what the Micro-empire is not.


On Monday, March 28, 2005 at 8:25 pm, eagle wrote:
>I had this problem with icons disappearing from my notebook system tray. This was
>after I tried installing XPSP2, but had to uninstall it because it caused my Outlook
>Express to stop retrieving emails. I discovered that login out and back in using
>an user account\profile with password helped to restore some icons to the system
>tray. This worked, but sometimes not all the icons would appear. I ran the uninstall
>of the Universal Plug and Play feature from the Add\Remove Windows components and
>it fixed the problem. When I re-installed the UPnP support, the problem returned.
> I disabled the UPnP service and the the SSDP Service and the problem has gone away.
> I am leaving the UPnP disabled since I don't need it. I don't have any network
>PnP devices that would require this feature. So, the UPnP can stay disabled along
>with the SSDP Service, which searches for UPnP network devices.
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I've had this problem for years. I got a new laptop recently (Inspiron 9200 with XP Pro) and it was occurring with it two. I spent a couple of hours tonight trying most of the above suggestions. I finally got everything working by installing the above mentioned, free, startup delayer on both machines. I delayed my program launches starting from 20 seconds and then every 5 seconds. I tried launches after 10 seconds and it did not work. My icons are back! Thanks to all contributors. My recommendation is to try this solution first.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

After searching through this forum I tried this solution and it worked for me. Thanks Peter for your post. I now hae all the icons back in my notification area where they belong.


On Thursday, February 6, 2003 at 1:18 am, Peter wrote:
>Well I finally fixed it on my computer, we'll see if it works for you all.. Get a
>program called RegCleaner. start it up and go to the startup tab, for me it was
>showing Desktop loading twice one of the instances was (common user) the other was
>not named, I deleted the common user instance, after creating a restore point ;p
>
>After that when I restarted it not only finished booting quicker but all the icons
>were loaded properly into the notification area.
>
> On Wednesday, October 9, 2002 at 9:48 pm, Louis wrote:
>>When I restart my computer, the only icon showing in the system tray is for Norton
>>Antivirus. There are about five other icons that should be there, but they're not