Notification Area Buttons load whimsically on booting

[vinaya_pande]

Greetings to all!

I am on WinXP Home. I have Customized Notifications for the SysTray (Notification Area). However, at evey boot, the SysTray buttons are displayed whimsically. Often, the "Arrowhead" (> / <) for "Show/Hide Buttons" doesn't show. The "Customize Notifications" pane on /Start>Settings>Taskbar and Start Menu/ inconsistently displays "Current Items" and "Past Items". I read on the Web (where, I can't recall) that this has been an "issue" with WinXP from Day 1. Is it so? Even if it isn't, how do I resolve this nagging vexation?

 

[Bobbye]

I find some of these icons notoriously deaf to what I set that for. The < > isn't going to show unless there are more buttons that can be displayed in the Notification area.

Right click on Taskbar>> Properties> check 'hide inactive icons' ( you have to do that for the Customize feature to become available)> Customize> set the icons to either 'always hide', always show' or 'hide when inactive'> OK> APPLY> OK.

If you aren't using the Apply feature, that may be why some aren't retaining the setting.

 

[vinaya_pande]

Thanks to Bobbye "TechSpot Addict" for sage advice. However, in pursuance of Bobbye's guidance, I furiously booted and re-booted several times, but the problem is back at square one. I have marked three icons as "Always show ", five as "Hide when inactive" and the rest as "Always hide", and clicked "Apply" and then OK in the Customize Notifications pane. BUT on three separate re-boots, only two of the "Always show" buttons presented on the Systray, with one button each of the other two categories. The "arrowhead" (< or >) was missing all the time. On all occasions, the lists of "Current" and "Past" items were dissimilar in the Customize pane. This is the crux of the matter: Why should the OS (WinXP Home) make these changes whimsically? Interestingly, yesterday, faced with the same problem, I ran the Check Disk facility on C:, which set the error right for a few new boots, and then the SysTray regressed to this inconsistency. As I said in the first post, some observers have lamented that this is an "original bug" (in the manner of the "original sin") in the WinXP family. Please enlighten on a standing solution to this annoyance.

 

[Bobbye]

I don't know whether the description of Windows changing the settings 'whimsically' is accurate. In my experience, it is just the way the operating system works!

Can you give me some idea of the particular icons you are consistently having problems with? You should know that the icons you see in the Notification area represent running programs and apps so the fewer, the better. It is not a good thing to just try and display the icons.

I have a LAN icon that I have been resetting for 3 years and it will never stay hidden!