Community Newsletter: Q&A: 3/24/06 Give me back my Windows system tray icons
- 3/23/06 4:43 PM
That sounds more like a virus to me...
by zinkerbell - 3/24/06 8:48 AM In reply to: Barry W's winning answer by Marc Bennett
That sounds more like a virus to me, like some computer virus that has been missed by mcafee... Barry should go to symantec or some other virus website that allows free scanning of their system and check to see if maybe a virus was found that got by his mcafee.
Kimberley from Connecticut
Universal Plug and Play can cause icons to disappear
by generalstuart - 3/24/06 9:32 AM In reply to: Barry W's winning answer by Marc Bennett
Regarding Universal Plug and Play can cause icons to disappear from the system tray.
Do you know if Microsoft is working on a fix for this issue?
Thank you!
Stuart Scott
San Jose, CA
blue screen errors
by DWWALLS - 3/24/06 7:34 PM In reply to: Universal Plug and Play can cause icons to disappear by generalstuarti have a dell dimension 2350 and it has windows xp,it is loaded with spyware.i am looking for a free spyware remover and advice on how to remove it w/o losing data.
i've been getting the following blue screen errors:DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL,
C:\DOCUME~1\OWNER~1.BAR\LOCALS~1\TEMP\WER18AEDIR00\SYSDATA.XML,BCCODE:100000D1:BCP1:FF82A000 BCP2:00000002 BCP3:00000000 BCP40040521D OSVERS_1_2600
SP:2_0 PRODUCT 768_1.I SPENT 99.00 USING DELLS TECH SUPPORT TEAM WHICH IS VERY EXTREMELY UNSATISIFACTORY.I EVEN SENT DELL THE 1607 ERROR WHICH HAS TO DO WITH THIS ERROR:UNABLE TO INSTALL INSTASHIELD SCRIPTING RUNTIME AND THEY SENT ME AN E-MAIL STATING THAT THEY COULD NOT ROUTE THE ERROR TO THEIR TECH-SUPPORT.SO WHAT THIS TELLS ME IS THAT THEY DON'T WANT TO DEAL WITH THE ERROR PROBLEMS AND APPARENTLY IT IS WIDESPREAD WITH DELL COMPUTERS.IF YOU KNOW OF ANY SOLUTIONS,I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE IT AS THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR ABOUT 2 MONTHS NOW.
THANK YOU IN ADVANCE,
BOB REID
UPnP and Icons disappearing
by ninja660 - 3/24/06 11:05 AM In reply to: Barry W's winning answer by Marc Bennett
You reported that you found the solution in an old newsgroup message - Microsoft has moved this article into the Microsoft Knowledgebase as a solution - I found and printed the article for future reference. Very strange that UPnP has an effect on Tray Icons. Once I turned it off and the icons mysteriously reappeared. However, I did find a UPnP piece of hardware on a wireless network in which case, the Icons appeared normally.
Icons in the system tray
by louis_lulu - 3/24/06 11:45 AM In reply to: Barry W's winning answer by Marc Bennett
Hello Barry and thank you so very much for solving my problem with the system tray icons. This problem has been driving me crazy for the past year.
Your procedure works and now I am a happy camper. The only problem I am still having is a slow boot of my system. I will shut down completely and perform a cold boot now that I have eradicated the system tray problem and see if that helps. If not, do you know of any other reasons/solutions that might assist me? I have scanned for viruses, Adware/Spyware and all is well. I do know that I did remove some programs that I no longer used and when they ask if I wanted to save/delete shared DLL files I would say yes.
Thanks again
John
PS: I am from Akron, OH and have lived in Chicago for the past 7 years.
Disappearing Icons
by armadeon - 3/24/06 11:47 AM In reply to: Barry W's winning answer by Marc Bennett
i have had to resort to waiting until HD activity has finished at the user log on screen. i have noticed in event viewer that the problem always came up with my graphics drivers but up-(or down)-grading them didnt help. when i put them onto retry if loading failed, that helped but it developed other inconsistencies.
i now just stick to giving it an extra couple of minutes. it's annoying, but it works.
Barry's missing icons
by wwalford - 3/24/06 12:05 PM In reply to: Barry W's winning answer by Marc Bennett
Hi guys,
I'm not sure you're all on the right track here as I've had a very similar problem happen to me!
It turned out that my system had in fact been infected with a rootkit!
It was called hacktool.rootkit and I was able to firstly identify its presence through Symantec then remove it using F-Secure security.
There is a trial available with them and it seems great to me, detecting and removing viruses, spyware and rootkits!
You can even get 6 months on trial via a link through Microsoft Partners.
Hope this helps guys.
barry
by Billyjess - 3/24/06 1:06 PM In reply to: Barry W's winning answer by Marc Bennett
So why is UPnP in there in the first place, if its ok to just take it out? What will happen to other things if I follow your instructions??
and how do I get to the windows firewall place like you said in your sencond place?? Please
Windows 2000, too
by carp317 - 3/24/06 1:33 PM In reply to: Barry W's winning answer by Marc Bennett
Every once in a while, I lose some of my systray icons, as well, and I'm running W2000 PRO. Unfortunately, neither of Barry's solutions is pertinent to W2000. I have no UPnP interface listed in my Network Services details. And, of course, I don't have a Windows firewall. I've never particularly cared that my systray icons disappeared as long as my system still functions. Windows has always contained strange and mysterious glitches. However, I am now intrigued by the fact that the disappearing icons occur in both systems and that something that doesn't exist in W2000 fixes the problem in XP. It seems obvious that the error occurs in a module common to both OS's and is effected by UPnP such that the processing is directed "around" the offending code.
I've been retired from this business for 10 years, but something like this ALMOST makes me want to get back in the game.
Fran L.
Are you sure the icons are missing?
by nambinhvu - 3/24/06 3:30 PM In reply to: Barry W's winning answer by Marc Bennett
I didn't read everything that you guys posted, but it might be that they are just being hidden. If you don't use the system tray icons for a while they are hidden on windows XP see if there is a blue circle with an arrow in it and click it. This should show them and after a while they will become hidden again. I'm not sure if this is the problem, but it might be.
Thanks, Barry
by elwoy - 3/25/06 5:59 AM In reply to: Barry W's winning answer by Marc Bennett
I did what you suggested and it worked. It is very odd that there is a connection between UPnP and system tray icons, but there it is. In any case, unchecking UPnP did the trick. Oddly, I had no folder to open under "my network places." I right-clicked it and opened properties, and found the UPnP option. Anyway, thanks for your (and everyone else's) help.
I can't see this being the winning answer.....
by merchContractor - 3/25/06 7:09 AM In reply to: Barry W's winning answer by Marc Bennett
but apparently Marc Bennett thinks it is by some fluke thinking here. I have had no problems with system icons connected with UPnP, which is running on my system (Windows XP-home ed.); and if I don't want or need certain icons running on the system tray I know how to stop them from showing up on start up (run the MSCONFIG utility and uncheck items from the Start Up tab in this utility, then let the computer reboot and these won't show up anymore). That was my submission to this person's question, but apparently Marc thinks I'm wrong. Uninstalling from the Add/Remove programs is not a good idea since some UPnP programs may be needed (i.e., games, etc.) I'm not a hired professional PC Tech person, but I've gone through the schooling at a tech school, earned a Bachelor's degree in computer information systems, took a PC Repair course, so I think my experience and education at least deserves this merit. It may have something to do with the person's system and hardware components, too, so that has to be considered. As it is true that system tray icons running causes some slow performance, they're not all entirely the causes of performance either. And, anytime a program is activated from the programs menu, the icon appears on the system tray indicating a running program. The question this person is asking is that icons on the system tray are disappearing and he/she wants them to reappear (like the volume control?) - which I can't understand why this person wants it to be showing (running) when it can be accessed from the programs menu from the start button. Apparently this person has no clue on how to access programs from the start menu, unless the volume control program has not been properly installed then, of course, it won't show up! Volume control has something to do with the sound card and if the sound card is not seated correctly on the motherboard's connection (expansion slots) then that's also the reason. Sound connections come from an installed program CD that install sound drivers when connecting the audio cable to the onboard sound system. In the BIOS settings, if the Audio Device feature is not "enabled" (meaning, not started), then that's the reason for the volume control not showing up in the programs. These are the considerations the user has to determine to fix the problems and they're all there for the user to do and fix on their own. Even an uneducated PC user can look up these problems by reading up on their system board's (i.e., motherboard) booklet that came with the hardware (every user should have at least a booklet that has the info on their system's hardware - the motherboard - that will explain every hardware/softare issue and show the user how to use the BIOS settings - I've had 3 different motherboards installed - I, myself, installed 2 of them - and the booklet comes with the motherboard, as with any other hardware device plugged into the system, i.e, printer, cameras, etc.), so this "winning answer" here needs some discretion as to its validity.
But the answer was given and acknowledged
by luebkert - 3/25/06 4:53 PM In reply to: I can't see this being the winning answer..... by merchContractorIt was to go to the properties of the system tray and unclick Hide inactive Icons.
several others, and I, have tried this as well and it worked!
Therefore that should be the winning solution, or alternatively to use these icons frequently enough for them to stay displayed.
Wow...
by flcenter - 12/26/06 3:47 PM In reply to: I can't see this being the winning answer..... by merchContractorWell, for all of your "Education", it's pretty sad that you can't even differentiate between a "taskbar" and a "system tray" or "notification area". We're all really impressed that you know how to use MSCONFIG, but that's contrary to solving this problem. And, FYI, there are many programs which can be much more easily accessed via the notification area icons, not the least of which is the "Unplug or Eject Hardware" icon---perhaps you would rather go through Device Manager? Work smarter, not harder. Maybe then you could someday become a "hired professional PC Tech person" as you so eloquently put it.
hi got the thing
by kemmiller - 3/25/06 8:13 AM In reply to: Barry W's winning answer by Marc Bennett
i looks like to me like u got a virus or spyware so to get rid of a virus or spyware start your computer in safe mode and use a spyware remover or a virus remover Reply to me at Samjefferies44@aol.com
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