Quick fix for disappearing system tray icons
For whatever reason, the last time I booted my Vista laptop the network icon was missing from its usual spot next to the clock in the system tray.
I right-clicked the Start button, chose Properties, and clicked the Notification Area tab to recheck this option under "System icons," but it was grayed out.
I found the solution on Colin Cochrane's blog. Here are the steps in a nutshell:
Back up the Registry by creating a restore point.
Press the Windows key, type regedit, and press Enter to open the Registry Editor.
Navigate to and select HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify.
Delete both IconStreams and PastIconStream in the right pane.
Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete and select Start Task Manager.
Select the Processes tab, choose explorer.exe, and click End Process.
Choose the Applications tab, click New Task, enter explorer.exe in the text box, and press Enter.
Your icons should reappear.
Return missing icons to Vista's system tray by editing the Registry, stopping explorer.exe, and restarting the process via Task Manager.
(Credit: Microsoft)Another option for taskbar problems is the free Taskbar Repair Tool Plus, which I found on Kelly Theriot's Kelly's Korner.
Tomorrow: the best OpenOffice.org templates and clipart.
Dennis O'Reilly has covered PCs and other technologies in print and online since 1985. Along with more than a decade as editor for Ziff-Davis's Computer Select, Dennis edited PC World's award-winning Here's How section for more than seven years. He is a member of the CNET blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. 
I've never had a single problem in XP or Vista other than Nvidia driver crashing when I first installed Vista. I don't need everything dumbed down for me to have a good computer experience. XP and Vista work great! I actually like having the ability to get into the registry and make tweaks...
Isn't that a little overboard? A restart would be faster, safer even. Basically, restarting explorer.exe IS a restart. Must admit, didn't know you could end it and continue on! But a restore point, edit the registry, restart explorer.exe? You got to be kidding! Is this sarcasm? I usually detect this, I'm a master...
Answer me this? How come, when I minimize an application, often the icons on the desktop take the "default icon" form and are then slowly refreshed by Windows? This happens mostly in XP, but I think I've seen it on Vista as well.
Windows hides some (you can find these by clicking the ">>" to the left of the tray (or is it "<<").
Also, there is/was a Wizard to clean up icons not used - placing them in an "unused icons" folder on the desktop. There may be something similar for the system tray.
Unlike the start menu in windows, where you have to spend at least half an hour to organize even if you have just a few programs installed.
But i gotta give it to you, I am surprised that you didn't hit us, mac users, with that one button mouse insult which was outdated like a decade ago.
Oh and by the way, "menu bar" in mac is the equivalent of system tray in windows.
It is surprising to hear so many superior mac users complain about inferior and outdated windows. Why cant you force yourself to stop reading articles on windows and go play in utopia?
This happened to me yesterday. I had to reboot my Vista computer to get the Volume icon back. Before I did that, I searched high and low for another way to get to Volume. There wasn't any. My other OS preferences aside. This is a ridiculously stupid glitch. I appreciate that there's an article to fix this without rebooting. It is very extreme and risky for such a seemingly mundane problem.
But this registry editing crap is silliness. All because Windows "outthinks" you or worse, there's a bug that removes icons by mistake.
LMAO that was the lamest thing i have heard today
FYI i need both OS's for my job, and find it useful to read articles about both... like that is any of your business.
>> All you need to do is to right click on task bar --> Properties --> notification area in vista.
sachanta1, you need to learn some reading comprehension. Dennis clearly stated that he tried that but the option was grayed out.
A sensible (and stable) operating system does not change settings like that without the user doing something to cause it. Guess what? Windows does change a lot of settings without the user doing anything. That sounds very insensible to me. Practically every other modern OS (including GNU/Linux and MacOS X) does not do this. That might explain why adoption rates of Vista are as low as they are (because it has a lot of the same issues as XP) and why people are even switching to more sensible operating systems.
For the record, Vista will never be allowed in my home. My wife still hangs onto XP on one of our computers, but as it gets older and more obsolete by the day (it's already 7 years old!), all my computers will eventually use better, stabler, and more sensible operating systems like Linux and FreeBSD. The best part is that they're free as in free speech and as in free beer--the latter being a natural by-product of the former. (My wife wants to get a Mac someday, so I may have one non-Free OS in my home).
Thank alotttttttttttttttttttttttttt.
"I right-clicked the Start button, chose Properties, and clicked the Notification Area tab to recheck this option under "System icons," but it was grayed out."
This part should probably tip you all off that this is not a regular problem you're dealing with. Also, some have commented on the fact that some icons can be hidden from the customize menu (but that's not the problem). I found this article to be very helpful since I experience this problem every once in a while. Sure, rebooting usually fixes it, but it is a hassle to do so. Better to get rid of the problem completely.
Next, to those that wondered, there is an option to export the entire registry into a .reg file. Also, there are entire forums dedicated to people touting their oh, so superior operating system. Do you want to know what I think? There are flaws in all operating systems. They're so complex, it's impossible not to have hiccups every once in awhile. The nice thing is when people figure out how to solve these problems, and share their knowledge with others. Go argue on those forums, not here.
Finally, I have a question. What causes the disappearing icons in the first place? If it's certain applications, which ones?
For some reason windows sometimes loses system tray icons and the best way to get them back is the method described above. Traditional ways of getting them back do not alway work., i.e. using the properties menu etc.
But while I can appreciate Mac users enthusiasm, Macs are by no means perfect, or that much better than PCs. Just tell that to my iMac that is on the fritz right now, or my IBM Thinkpad. All computers have problems.
- by Fexii June 16, 2009 6:35 PM PDT
- I had to repeat this enough times that I created a batch file to do it for me. Just copy and paste the following into "SystemTray.bat" and double-click it to automate the process described in this post.
- Reply to this comment
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(25 Comments)@echo off
reg delete "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify" /v IconStreams /f
reg delete "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify" /v PastIconStream /f
taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
explorer.exe