Win XP system Tray

Win XP went belly up on me at the weekend and I have had to reformat and reload everything. When XP was first installed everything seemed to be ok but after a few days I am having a problem with my system tray. It is not showing all my icons and the arrow to enlarge it has disappeared Have any of you guys any suggestions?

I think we are going to need a little more info.

From what you have said, it could be as simple as an Explorer crash, and a reboot would restore your systray icons. It could also be something completely different.

I have rebooted many times without any improvement. I have been into taskbar properties and unchecked "hide inactive icons" but it still only shows 3 icons plus the clock. In properties it lists all the icons that should be there.

Ok, they are listed under Current Items, in properties. Are they also shown as running services in Task Manager?

How many apps are we talking about here? I have seen cases where some systray icons would sometimes not load(not exactly the same as your problem but similar) The solution was to stop some nonessential services from loading at startup.

Even if it doesn't fix the problem, disabling nonessential services is a good idea anyway, as it free up resources.

Yes they are showing in Task Manager. We are talking of maybe 6 apps, like you I try to get rid of as many icons in the systray as I can.
You have started me thinking tho, could it just be that there are not enough to kick in the arrow to expand the systray? Dunno, maybe I am clutching at straws but I thought the arrow has always been there in the past

Well, unless you have tagged some of those icons to "Hide" when inactive or to always hide, you shouldn't have an arrow, the purpose of the arrow is to show the hidden icons. You might also want to check the settings of any of the apps that you think should be in the tray, make sure that if they have a setting for systray icon, it is enabled.

Thanks for the suggestions Storm, but believe it or not my little arrow suddenly appeard while I was on my pc this morning. I was just surfing and noticed it there whereas it wasn't first thing.
I can't expain it, I am convinced pc's have a mind of their own sometimes

What happens when you kill these apps that don't show up and then restart them?

If you had any icons set to "hide when inactive" then after a period of the program not being used, its icon will hide and the arrow will show up. If there are no programs set to "always hide" then th earrow will only show up after hiding inactive applications.

This could be a similar problem and I hope it helps. I have the high speed DSL broadband service which is always on when my PC boots up. When I boot Windows XP (Home), everything looks fine. I can run programs and I can access my hard drive, but in the taskbar or system tray, the icons finish loading in about three to five minutes. If I should try to access the web with Microsoft Internet Explorer during this time period, my web access is blocked until all the icons in the system tray have finished loading.

The problem seems to be in START>RUN>MSCONFIG>SERVICES. I have found a workaround to my problem by disabling all the Windows Services and enable only the ones I need for the internet. If I do this then I can get on the web right away after Windows XP boots up. I would like to know which service is causing this problem so I can disable it and enable all the other Windows Services. One thing I notice is that when the problem service is disabled, Norton Anti Virus icon does not appear in the taskbar and the Norton Anti Virus e-mail scan feature is disabled in Norton, even though all the Norton Services and Symantec Services are checked and enabled in MSCONFIG. Also, Microsoft Outlook does not retain my password, and I have to re-enter my password every time Outlook starts to check my e-mail.

Event Viewer shows you services that fail to start or do other startange things. AFAIK you also have to enable NAV service in services configuration too for it to work.

Same issue

hodspots... did you ever find out what was the problem? I have the EXACT same issue going on...

Hi all... nice to meet ya

I have the same problem with my Machine. The issue is that the programs that have icons in the system tray are running, just not showing their icons. If I kill off the programs using taskmanager, then restart them, they work fine. Even the volume icon (small speaker icon) is missing until I open sound properties and disable and re-enable it.

I have figured out that it is caused by Norton Antivirus 2003 that I installed. If I uninstall Norton, the tray icons come back. I can't find anything on Symantec's site discussing this issue.

Anyone else using Norton and having this problem?

Hi,
I am having exactly the same problem - I also have NAV2003 installed! Coincidence? I doubt it! I'll try uninstalling it tonight and let you know...
Gaz

Same exact problem here too

I have the same problem. Everything was fine even with Norton 2003 until I loaded a few more programs. I have reinstalled everything because of this problem only to run into it again.

My volume and another 3 or 4 Icons are missing. If you want to try something really weird that seems to fix the problem. Turn your computer on for about 15 min. (it may work immediately, but I have not tried it), LOGOFF your pc and LOGON. Now all of your stuff will appear!


Any ideas???

Here's a fix, but it's not guaranteed to work ...

1. Go to 'Services' and DISABLE the 'Universal Plug and Play Device Host' service.

2. Uninstall then Reinstall, the apps that are missing the systray icons. Or, if possible go to the configuration settings for the app and disable the systray icon, then re-enable it.

That should work in most cases.

This fix should work first time, everytime ...

RebIC v1.00.0000 - Icon Cache Rebuilder

1. Download the free software and run it to rebuild your icon cache. Ignore the fact the readme file says it's for win95/98, as it also works on winxp.

2. Reboot and voila, your systray icons will appear.

Please post if this works for you. The other fix I posted previously only works sometimes. This fix should work first time, everytime.

Edit: Doesn't work every time, but may work for you. Worth a try.

Hello everyone. I experience exactly the same problem and haven't found a solution yet.
HPolack your suggestion to log off and on again worked very well. This doesn't fix the problem but at least it is a good temporary solution. Thank you very much!

Check out this thread for a solution ...

systray annoyance

Well I seem to have stirred something up here..............
Since my icons came back everything has been OK.
I have been using NAV 2003 without problems or any effect on my systray.