Member Question of the Week

CNET 3-24-06

System tray icons began disappearing randomly

Q

Question:

I have a Dell Dimension running XP Home edition with all updates and SP2. All of a sudden, the icons in the system tray started disappearing randomly. First, Safely Remove Hardware" went away, then the volume control, then icons for background applications such as Counterspy and my desktop search, and the McAfee antivirus app. A few are still there, and--oddly enough--sometimes when I reboot, some that had been gone show up again, only to vanish on the next reboot. I checked the task manager, and the background programs (such as McAfee) are running, but there's no systray icon. I've checked the Properties/customize notifications, and clicked Restore Defaults, but that didn't help. Not having the icons in the system tray is more than an annoyance, as it is often hard to access some background programs another way. Can you help?

Answer # 1:

I had the exact same problem, and while I cannot be absolutely certain that what I found relates to your situation, I think that it might. What I found was that there seems to be a bug in Windows XP, and that for some inexplicable reason, Universal Plug and Play can cause icons to disappear from the system tray.

There are two places where you can manage the presence or absence of UPnP in Windows XP:

First, Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs, select Add/Remove Windows Components (on the left), then click on "Networking Services" and "Details". You will see "UPnP User Interface" listed. (this seems to be the setting that is relevant to this issue).

The second place is in the Windows Firewall, in the Exceptions Tab (you must first have allowed Exceptions in the general tab).

I have no idea why there is an interaction between UPnP and the icons in the system tray, but when I removed UPnP from Control Panel Add/Remove Windows Components, on my system the problem disappeared.

After I originally found this last November, other people reported a similar connection. My original report of this link (between UPnP and disappearing system tray icons) was in a now-expired Microsoft Newsgroup article from last November, which is no longer directly available, but this link will bring up the message thread.

Hope that this helps.

Submitted by: Barry W. of North Canton, Ohio

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Answer # 2:

I, too, have this problem with my "Frankenstein monster" running XP Home SP2 and all the updates. My solution was rather simple, I pause during bootup. Let me explain. I am a stand-alone computer user at home, and my computer is set to ask for a password when logging in. I just leave it alone (at the password prompt) for a few minutes and the majority of the time, not all the time but I guesstimate ~90% of the time my Systray icons reappear.

The way it normally happens is that there tends to be a "conflict of interest" between what Windows needs, memory-wise, to install itself and what other background programs needs. A lot of times there is a clash when both are trying to access the same startup memory locations. In such a case, Windows will always take priority and the backgrounds do not get all the memory room they need to completely startup. Thus, although they are still functional and running, certain smaller less critical things may get bumped in the process. Much like what might happen to a reservation at your favorite airline.

When I pause at the Password prompt, Windows continues to load (as evident by the continued harddrive light activity) but the other background programs will not try to startup until after I get past the Password prompt, giving Windows more than enough time to release the startup memory locations for other activity.

Submitted by: Michael T.

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Other reader Answers:

This is a Windows bug (feature?) actually, not much you can do about it (other than, probably, reformat HDD and reinstall Windows (although the first crash might set you back to square one)). I researched it ad nauseam:

The best theory I have heard is that the problem of the icons disappearing is due to the systray ("notification area") not being ready to place the icons when the applications load. You might try killing (i.e. removing) some of the startup processes (UPnP, SSDP), although, surely, you might *need* such services. You may also try placing systray.exe in your startup folder, or using such systray repair software like "Taskbar Repair Plus" etc. Aside from placing systray.exe in the startup folder, none of the other workarounds are a surefire way to solve the problem. And, positively, none of them workarounds are very elegant. Probably the most elegant (save for reinstall) is to give systray.exe time to load properly by not using autologon: after booting, allow Windows a few minutes to load properly by just staring at the blue logon screen and, when you don't see any movement in the HDD LED area (i.e. it stops blinking), then you're free to log on.

Microsoft's own "advice": in order to restore the missing icons in the notification area just logoff and log back on.

Relevant links: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
http://winhlp.com/WxSystray.htm
http://shell-shocked.org/article.php?id=285
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1034225301

Submitted by: Christian C.

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This is a known issue with any WinXP version and the cause is still unknown. There are a couple of things you can try to "shake" the bug out of your PC.

On all of these suggestions, try one at a time. Only move to the next if the last did not resolve your issue, and reverse any that does not work.

- Right click the Taskbar, choose Properties, uncheck 'Hide Inactive Icons' checkbox, reboot.
- Using the same routine as above, check or uncheck 'Lock the Taskbar' (depending on its current condition), reboot.
- Use the Ostuni Workaround. Open your 'My Network Places' folder by clicking on the icon on your desktop. In the left pane of the window you should see 'Network Tasks' listing of options. If you don't, then click on the 'Folders' button on the menu bar. Now you should see it. Choose 'Hide icons for Networked UPnP Devices'. (If you only see 'Show icons...' as an option, then hide icons is already active... do not change it.) This is a well known workaround for this issue and has worked for many.

Note: if you do not see a 'My Network Places' icon on your desktop then open 'Display Properties'. Click the Desktop Tab and the 'Customize Desktop' button. Check the 'My Network Places' checkbox, OK. It should now appear on your desktop.

Submitted by: Steve B.

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Microsoft is aware of the issue with system tray icons not showing up. The culprit is most often in the Networking Services that can be optionally installed via Add/Remove Programs. These services are rarely needed by anyone but IT personnel, so you won't really be missing anything by uninstalling them. The most common one out of these to cause problems is the Universal Plug and Play option. Don't worry about Windows' ability to detect new hardware. It won't be affected by disabled UPnP. UPnP is there to allow network devices to automatically detect things like your firewall and allow programs to open up ports for themselves.

If this does not help, there are some freeware programs on the internet that will delay your startup programs. Use one of these to delay your startup group from running until everything else has loaded.

Submitted by: James H.