Tray Icons

[NeonBlack]

Hello, for some reason, all but a couple of my system tray icons have disappeared- including the volume control. They are not simply hidden- they are completely gone. The programs still load when I start windows, but the icons just do not show up in the tray. I have done both spyware and virus scans and come up clean. The icons return if I log off and then log back on. Is there any way to fix this?

Thank you.

[5614]

If you are on winXP (or one of several others MS Windows OS) then right click on the taskbar and see if 'hide inactive icons' is ticked (and that can be customised as well to make it not only inactive but others too).

[NeonBlack]

No 5614 I use this feature regularly and they are completely gone and not just hidden.

[Bettina]

Try this...My computer.....control panel....sounds and audio devices, and look at the checkbox for "Place volume icon in the taskbar"

 

1. If its unchecked, check it.......

 

2. If its already checked, then uncheck it, apply, then reboot your computer, then go back and check it then apply......that should do it.

 

I don't know the other ones...

 

Bettina

[5614]

As Bettina suggested I'm guessing it's more likely a program error rather than spyware, because spyware has charachteristics of stopping processes, or corrupting them, or starting other ones, not removing icons from a sys tray!

 

Is it ALL icons which are missing? Or just some? (Is the clock there?) What OS are you using? (If winXP is it SP1 or SP2?) When did this start? Was it seemingly random? If yes what were the last few programs you installed/downloaded?

[NeonBlack]

I have xp home with sp2. It happened two days ago or so at random- I don't remember installing any new softwares... I've done Bettina's method of restoring the volume control but it's always gone after my next restart. And symantec anti-virus and windowblinds are the only icons that haven't disappeared (The clock is fine).

[5614]

So what is actually missing? (Other than volume control)

[Bettina]

I have xp home with sp2. It happened two days ago or so at random- I don't remember installing any new softwares... I've done Bettina's method of restoring the volume control but it's always gone after my next restart. And symantec anti-virus and windowblinds are the only icons that haven't disappeared (The clock is fine).

 

So, your saying it does come back, but it goes away again if you do a restart. I would now turn off windowblinds and the antivirus so they don't boot up next time and then try and restart without them. Also, turn off any pop up blockers too.

 

Bettina

[5614]

Pop-up blockers won't effect system tray icons.

 

What I was trying to get at when I asked about what is actually missing is that is the AV and windowsblinds is working and sound isn't, well, I only know about 3 things, but sound is a fairly specific issue, if your problem was specific to windows applications then it'd be one thing, if it was general system tray problems it'd be another.

 

What I'm trying to get at is; is it the system tray which is mucking up (ie. you'd have a random bunch of things missing, but then I can't explain why you still have 2 icons and a clock there) or is it some programs themselves (ie. you'd have related programs not working, maybe say sound, network and mouse/keyboard which are all parts of the win OS).