Systray Annoyance

Hi, everyone. I looked everywhere ont he web and this forum seems to be the only one that is addressing my exact issue.

I have the same problem on my pc. I should be having about 7 icons, but only 4 come out with the other 3 swapping between each use.

I have installed Windows Xp many times before, and in fact reinstalled it after this problem occurred, and it's still there. I was wondering if anyone fixed there problem, or did they just reinstall Windows and everything was fine?

Thanks for your help.

You need to format your drive and then reinstall windows. That's the only way that works.

Nic, when you are giving ridiculous advice, at least put the in the end so that some gullible new member doesn't go and actually do what you tell them to..

If you have a solution that works, then by all means post it here.

I was actually serious about formatting and reinstalling windows, as that is the only way that works, as far as I know. I haven't spotted another solution (that actually works, and not just temporarily) in this thread, so what does that tell you?

Feel free to shed some light on this issue if you can, because I don't see the point in telling someone to jump through several hoops, only to end up having to reformat, and reinstall, windows to get rid of the disappearing systray icons. I have suffered from this issue myself, and formatting and reinstalling was the only fix that worked (for me).

thanks for your post here nic. however, i have tried reformatting. i'm on my third install. and this problem has showed up all 3 times. it's only shown up this time from prior installs. i'm thinking that you should install the things that need to be in the systray before you update to sp1. as i've only see it this time if i update sp1 before i install my programs. that is the only difference i can think of from this time and the prior installs.

oh well, i've spent 3 days installing programs and don't want to do it all over again. maybe in half a year when i decide to reformat the computer again.

let me know if you guys find another solution.

Sorry to hear about your continued problems with systray icons. There is very little info on the web about this, and there may be many factors that contribute to the problem. The issue is certainly not understood, and solutions that appear to work for some users (so they claim) will often not work for others.

I personally have only experienced problems about twice, and only with winxp. Reinstalling (with formatting) solved my issue in both cases, so I really cannot think of anything else you can try. Windows XP Sp2 is due out around December, so we can only hope that this new service pack fixes this issue, but don't hold your breath.

If you do notice anything interesting during your attempts to fix the issue, then please post here, as maybe we'll be able to spot some potential clues with this problem, and hopefully provide better advice for other users in the future.

And I'm quite sure that the systray annoyance is gone after a fresh install since you don't actually have any apps living in the systray.

Format and reinstall is certainly a solution to about 99% of Windows problems, but it is not what people are asking for.
Actually we could get rid of most of the stuff here in "Windows OS" section by making a sticky post saying "Format and reinstall"

I actually know someone who reinstalled Quattro Pro (a whopping 5 floppy install) because he turned on the Scroll Lock and couldn't move around in the cells any more.
The thing is, you shouldn't go shooting flies with cannons just because you are clumsy enough not to be able to do it with a swatter.

I agree, and those are wise words that you say. I wouldn't suggest a format and reinstall, if there was another way, but as yet I have not found another way to solve this problem.

I don't want to waste anyone's time by making suggestions, which will simply delay the inevitable (i.e. to format and reinstall) and I simply cut to the chase. If anyone does find a sure way to solve this problem, then they will have many happy users (myself included) that will be very gratefull for their efforts.

So this problem will appear just out of the blue? From what i gather by reading the posts it can happen after a fresh install or further down the line.

Sorry i can't help any of you on this subject. I myself only have one icon in the systray (InCD icon so i can burn cd-rw cd's, and i will disable it's startup once im done burning my backups), and have never had this type of problem.

Could it be a possibility of certain combo's of apps screwing around? Example, install certain burning apps combo's and next you know you're cd drive's not working in any of them.

I don't believe that the problem has anything to do with which background tasks are running. If this was a factor, then simply loging off and then loging back in to windows would not cause all the icons to reappear and stay there.

The issue is random (as to what icons are missing), and it only appears on startup, so I would suspect that it is caused by a timing issue during the period in which the apps and systray are loading. It's as if there is a race to load into the systray, and depending on how things pan out, some apps will fail to show up in the systray, although they are still running in the background.

Disabling some services that load on startup does have an affect on the timing of apps and systray loading, and will sometimes appear to cure the problem, but only temporarily, and your icons will start misbehaving again not long after this has been tried.

If anyone knows how to control the order in which these items load, then that may help to devise a solution that works. As far as I am aware, the order of apps and systray loading are controlled by where they appear in the registry, but not in any obvious, or configurable way, as much of this seems to be set when windows, and your apps, are installed.

Needless to say, this is all just speculation, so it could be well off the track. If enough users post their experiences with this issue, then maybe there will be enough clues to produce more accurate speculation, which may eventually lead to a solution being found. So feel free to speculate some more :=).

Hello peeps.

I've had this icon problem with every XP load I've done since I got it - on several machines. The user who said that logging off and on to get all icons to show hit it spot on. And it is also true that it is just the icons, that don't show. The services they represent are running.

My theory is that there is something we are all doing in common that is causing this. I've been trying for literally years now to figure this out. And I just can't figure out where the problem begins. Is it from when I install TweakUI? Is it because I use multiple partitions? Is it because I use TweakUI to move system folders to another partition? I thought it was NAV. It's not. Then I thought it was Roxio Easy CD Creator. Not that either. I haven't been able to narrow it down to any application. But maybe it's how we have configured XP.

I also contacted MS when I first had this problem, and they did not acknowledge it. I am going to contact them again and point them to this forum, which, unbelievably seems to be the only place which documents this issue.

-Jeremy

I don't believe the issue has anything to do with what applications are installed, or how XP is configured.

I have installed XP on several hard drives, on same PC, with same apps, many times, and I've only encountered this issue twice. Once present, I cannot get rid of it.

The issue seems to occur during the installation of XP, so the only thing I can think of is that it occurs during the configuration phase of the install, which configures your hardware, and settings, in a different order each time you install XP.

The way this process occurs results in different ordering of items in the registry, and influences the order in which each item loads when booting into XP.

During the period in which icons are added to the systray and their respective services/programs loaded, it would appear that while all of these have completed loading, the systray finishes loading before all the icons have been added. New icons cannot be added unless the services/programs to which they belong, are stopped and then restarted, as happens when logging off, and then back on again.

Because XP has less items to load than from a normal boot, the items that load into the systray are not in any kind of race to finish before the systray loads, and so all the icons manage to make it into the systray this time around.

I believe that this race to load, which happens in a random way (apps don't always load in the same order) explains why vanishing systray icons is also random (e.g. which icons are missing this time around).

Just my *guess*.

Same problem over here

Hello

I've got the exact same problem, and still searching for a solution.
I also turned "hide inactive" off and on startup not al my running programs are visible in Systray. Like firewall, mouseware and other.

Indeed if you log of (not power off) and log back in, all icons appear.

I hope to find an solution some day.

Hello

With RegRun you can define the order in which applications are loaded. I moved systray al the way to the top, but still I miss icons in my system tray, so I don't think that's the problem.

Hopefully someone will post THE SOLUTION one day

http://www.greatis.com/regrun3.htm

Can you try making systray load first, then last, then somewhere in the middle?
I don't have the systray problem at this time, so I am unable to test this. Let us know how you get on.

Any insight would be appreciated, as basically none of us here knows the answer to why this problem occurs. We can only guess based on observations and things we have tried.

Edit: I just downloaded a copy of RegRun and ran the RegRun Start Control to define registry order for startup programs. Systray doesn't appear anywhere. If you have the time, can you please let me know how you redefined systray load order. Thanks.

When I launch Start Control, the tab "Registry" shows first.
On this tab in the left Column you see a list of apps voor All Users.
In this list SystemTray is visible.
You can change order by clicking the AZ«-button.
I will try rearanging them als one time bottom of the list, in the middle he was at first. At the top doesn't make a difference to the problem.

Greetings

And I'm back again,
now I put SystemTray on the bottom of the list, and gues watt?
It works fine, at least this start up (after total shut down). Hopefully it will last.

Thanks for getting back to me. I have revisited the Tab you mentioned, but strangely there is no 'systray' item in my list, which is why I asked the question. I am running Win XP SP1, same as yourself, so I don't know why its not showing up in my list.

The closest thing I have is an 'nForce Tray Options' icon ('sstray.exe' which provides quick access to the nForce2 "Sound Storm" control panel and related utilitys). I can't find any reference to 'systray' anywhere using this utility.

Edit: Glad to hear your systray is working. Please post back later to let us know if it continues to work. That would be fantastic news.

Sorry to here dat you can't find it on your computer,
I now have several times rebootet my computer and it is al working fine.
In the attachment you can see where exactly it is in the Start Control.