Community Newsletter: Q&A forum: 3/24/06 Give me back my Windows system tray icons

To keep all those programs from starting when you boot up, you need to eliminate them in msconfig. You go to Run, type in msconfig and click ok. Click on the startup tab and take the check marks out of everything that you don't want to have start. You'll get a message that you have to restart the computer, and after it reboots the configuration utility message will appear, you decide if you want to see that each time you boot up.

.....http://www.sysinternals.com/
(To see what process are running they also have a program called Process Explorer.)

I prefer to "disable" rather than "delete".
If you don't know what something is do a Google search.

To review Windows XP services:
http://www.aumha.org/
http://theeldergeek.com/
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-22-5103176.html
http://www.jasonn.com/turning_off_unnecessary_services_on_windows_xp
and Google.

Michael, I too have found the simple solution to this annoying problem is to wait until everything loads before continuing with any commands. This is particularly important/noticeable on my Sony Vaio laptop. Just thought I'd confirm your solution.

I've just read some of the replies for this thread and want to add that I also had the problem of disappearing icons but my problem turned out to be cured by removal of a worm 'Rivarts A - Backdoor'. What made me suspect it was a Trojan was the disappearance finally of my Zone Alarm Firewall icon.

The solution for me was to revert the hard drive using 'Go Back' and, having updated my security software, I ran Microsoft Anti-spyware (this found the problem) and Zone Alarm anti-virus. Thereafter my computer has worked normally.
ricbards

I have had the same problem, and use the same solution. The only thing I have to add, is that you know Windows has had enough time when it looks at the floopy drive (if you have one) on start up.

They are running, but hiding.I get this all the time,especially when running a ram booster program.

Michael...my computer doesn't ask for a password at startup. Any suggestions on how I can give Windows the resources it needs under that scenario?

Or, is there something I can do to fill the system tray after Windows is finished loading?

Thanks...George

Has anyone noticed the missing Icons all relate to Hardware?
Not to be advertising but...
I use a little program from Jack-A$$ Joe at www.joejoesoft.com formerly arseware.org.
It's called Start-Right and controls the start order, timing between items loading, what it has control over, and when it even starts loading programs. It allows you to disable certain items from loading, Yabber, Yabber, Yabber...Even with Start Right, since applying SP2, I have the missing Icon issue when I use Auto Logon on XP HOME only. (I haven't tested MME yet).
I have found that if I tell Start Right to wait nearly 10 full seconds before launching itself and loading any RUN or Startup programs the problem does not rear it's ugly head.

I'm probably far from correct, but it seems that XP still has the problem of trying to enumerate devices in the registry that are not connected (and every time you plug something in one of the hives gets bigger). So on a hunch, I hooked up all my current toys and used "Disconnected Device Remover" (don't remember where I got it) which ripped out all those extra volumes from flash cards long lost, cameras long dropped into the Grand Canyon, and printers from offices I'll never visit again, and my XP-HOME is booting like a champ again (without Start Right).

You know a real easy fix (although it would sometimes add to boot time) would to be hold the user boot sequence until the system is completely loaded. No?

Answer:

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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Answer:

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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Answer:

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.

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Answer:

How do you get your system tray (notification area) icons back? Simple. Log off, log back on, and all the icons will be present.

There is another solution which you may prefer. Set up your Guest account. Then, when you turn on the computer let it rest for at least one minute on the opening screen before you click on your login to begin a Windows session. You will find that all your icons are in place.

I have the same system. It must be a timing problem with too many resident tasks trying to initiate at the same time as the network (or modem) connections are being established. I have tried other ideas to resolve this irritation, but I find the first method acceptable now.

Submitted by: George E. of Nova Scotia

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Answer:

This is in regards to the user: 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.

Here is a great site that addresses the users problem.
http://www.michna.com/kb/WxSystray.htm

(Below is the excerpt, according to many users it works wonders. I tried it myself for the same problem and it fixed it on two computers. There are other options, in case this doesnt work listed here as well.)

The Ostuni Workaroundso far most successful

The simple workaround

2004-11-11 Francesco Saverio Ostuni wrote: "... I found a solution for me that works perfectly. I simply went to My network Places and on the left pane I chose to Hide UPnP devices. This operation does not disable the service (which I need).

Further he mentioned that the same can be done through Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs, on the left side: Add/Remove Windows components; select Networking Services, click on the Details... button, remove the checkmark for the UPnP User Interface, then click on OK. The result is the same. Now the icons are back every time at each reboot.

This has meanwhile been confirmed by many other users and consistently kept a success rate of well over 90%, so we can conclude that this solves the problem on all but the most unusual Windows XP installations.

Submitted by: Nancy C.

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Answer:

I had the same problem with my HP Media Center XP. This happened after I created a wireless network with another home computer. The solution I found after trying many different things was to go to My Network Places and on the left pane chose to Hide UPnP devices reboot the computer and all the icons were in the tray and have been there ever since. My network still works perfectly with the UPnP hid. This solved my problem of missing icons in my systray.

Submitted by: Karen E. of Cleveland, OH

I have had my msgtag icon disappear from my system tray at the bottom, and I have NO idea how to get it back. I have read most of the answers, and either I don't understand them, or there's not enough info for me to act on.
But I have the programme in All Programmes, but my little icon has gone.
Does someone know how I can get it back please??

where is Steve B's response, I can't find it, or I'm looking right over it ...
I still can't get my one icon back

Hi billyjess. As hotjoeker already replied the message is in honourable mentions above. Looks like all the honourable's were compiled in a list with no searchable names available. Just scroll down the list to read them. Most answers have similar solutions any ways but I read through a lot of them and found Steve B described it in simpler terms for me to follow the bouncing ball and do it.

Answer:

Disappearing Taskbar Icons

This is a "feature" of Windows XP. It's actually kind of handy, since every little applet and his brother install icons in the tray, and it quickly becomes unwieldy. In the process of teaching you how to adjust this behavior, you'll learn a couple of handy XP tricks.

First trick, right click on the "Start" button. Here you'll find all sorts of handy shortcuts, including "Open" (opens an Explorer window). But for now click the "Properties" option, near the bottom.

If you remember the way the start menu used to look in Windows 98, you can go back to that look by clicking "Classic Start Menu" here. But for now, the option we're interested in is on the other tab. Click the "Taskbar" tab at the top to show its contents.

On this page there are lots of handy options. You can find out what they do by clicking the "?" icon to the right in the window title bar. The mouse cursor will now have a "?" next to it. Click on the option to pop up a window showing what that option does.

The option we're interested in is the one at the bottom, "Hide inactive icons". This is what's happening on your computer now. If the icon doesn't refresh after a period of time, Windows removes it from the screen. You can click that little "<" in the task bar to see the hidden icons, theoretically, but I've found that this feature doesn't work well in XP.

You have two choices to change the behavior. The easiest option is to uncheck the box next to "Hide inactive icons". When you click "OK", all of the icons in the taskbar will be displayed all the time.

If you have a lot of icons down there, you might be better off leaving the option checked, and instead customizing its behavior. To do this click the "Customize..." button to the right of the option.

This opens a box called "Customize Notifications." You will see a list of all the icons currently in your taskbar, as well as some icons that have been there recently. Next to each icon is a behavior. You can click the behavior to drop down a list of your choices. For each icon, you can select "Hide when inactive", "Always show" or "Always hide".

This lets you adjust what you see in the taskbar tray in a way that's convenient for you. After you make your selections, click the "OK" button here, then the "OK" button on the Taskbar properties.

Submitted by: Eric R.

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Answer:

Greetings Robert!

I do know the frustration of missing taskbar tray icons as I do like their access functions. In my search for a fix, I ran across a nice little program made by Kelly of "kellys-korner-xp.com". It is called "Taskbar Repair Tool Plus! (http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm), a trusted long-time friend of the XP users' problems. Anywho, when you execute this little program, you'll see three repair windows, "Taskbar Problems", "Notification Area" and "Quick Launch Bar". When you use the drop down window, listed under "Notification Area", you'll see a category called "Show Missing Icons". Her explanation of this missing icon issue is three fold, "Auto-Logon", "SSDP and uPNP Services. Now, I am guilty of using all three and will ultimately lose my task bar icons as time goes on! Her fix involves disabling the "SSDP and uPNP" services. I can reassure you that I have used this fix and have regained my taskbar icons, all of them, the easy way!

Lub ya Miss Kelly of KellysKorner!

Submitted by: Jackie

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Answer:

Icons vanishing could be a problem as simple as your icon cache needs to be rebuild. There are many ways to do this, but my favorite is by using MS's unsupported "Tweak ui"

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Look on the right side of the page and scroll down to "Tweak U I" and download it. Tweak UI allows you to tweak your registry safely!

Once installed open it and look to the left side, to the bottom where is says "Repair", click on that and you'll see a selection window. click on "Rebuild Icons", once that is in the window, click the "Repair now" button and your icon cache will be rebuilt. Once that's done see if that took care of your problem. If not go to the same window and select "Repair regedit", click repair now and then the rebuild icons again. That should take care of your icon problem unless you have something else trashing your icons.

One thing you should watch out for is using one of these so called "System cleaners" I've tried many over the years doing some software testing for several web sites I do reviews for and have yet found ANY that are completely safe. ALL of them have a bad habit of attempting (or removing) critical files from various programs (including Windows) Unfortunately icons are among the items that often get damaged when using these programs. So if you've used one of these programs, try using the undo option if everything started acting up before you ran the clean up.

Many things can screw up your system or other programs. I recommend using a good "imaging" software. I prefer "Rollback Rx Pro", but am sure you would get many other choices depending on whom you ask. This way if you keep your images up to date, you can always revert your system pack to a time when things were acting normally, including icons being where they should be.

Submitted by: Hawk

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Answer:

Hello, Robert,

This is a first for me where someone wants to see programs running on their system tray! Usually, any programs running on the system tray indicates those program icons that are viewable are actually running on your system while you do other functions on your computer. Sometimes this may slow down your virtual memory or your computer speed (Mhz) if too many icons are on the system tray that are running in the background. Its always a good suggestion to view those programs to see if you really need all of those on every restart or boot-up i.e., anti-virus is ok since you feel protected on every boot up (although its not exactly needed every time, so you can still access your anti-virus program from your start menu programs).

The Safely Remove Hardware icon indicates that you have either a digital camera hook-up on a USB connection or something else via USB (which on my system, same as yours, this always occurs), so you can unplug your digital camera and this will disappear every time. It really is a not needed icon on your system tray because it only appears when something hooked on a USB connection is plugged in, and disappears when disconnected.
Your Volume Control icon can always be found in your Program Accessories folders (Start, Programs, Accessories, Entertainment, then find Volume Control). Again, this is really one of those Not needed icons on a system tray, unless you always want it there, you can click on the application, then see if this is in your Start Up folder when you run MSCONFIG (shown in the steps below here). Same explanation applies to your Desktop Search and CounterSpy programs.

It seems youve tried all that you thought of here of where to restore your system tray icons, except for one other check, where Ive learned to do this procedure every time:

Have you tried clicking on:
(1) Start, then
(2) Run, then
(3) type in the block: MSCONFIG (without the quotes here), then
(4)Click on the tab where you see Start Menu
In there are all the original start menu icons that are in your start up folder whenever you start up your computer. Sometimes this is good to use if you dont want certain programs to start up in your system tray. But if you want to see those icons in your system tray, then this is where you want to check each one listed here. Find these programs in this list, then check each one that you want to appear in the system tray on every restart or boot up. Click back on the General Tab and then click OK or Apply (Apply here means that whatever you did in the Start Up tab will be applied immediately upon clicking on the Apply button then click OK after Apply).

(5) Windows will then show you a window to restart your computer, so go ahead and do that and all those checked items you checked in the Start Up tab in the MSCONFIG program will now be applied on every restart or boot up on your computers desk top system tray.

(6) When you do step 5, upon the reboot and seeing your Windows system come on, you will also see another Window message pop up on your desktop saying that youve done some changes in the System Configuration Utility which is what you typed in the Run program box: MSCONFIG, and it states that you made changes to the way Windows starts. This will ultimately always pop up every time you do a restart or boot up. To take this off permanently, check the little box next to the Dont show this message or Launch the System Configuration Utility when Windows starts, and you wont see this again, and all your checked items you did in this utility program (MSCONFIG) will always be in the start up every time you start up the computer.

Hope this helped you out, but there are other answers out there to this question that might be more specific.

Submitted by: Carlene C.

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Answer:

Well, it sounds to me like either a virus or spyware infection. I think your best bet would be to first, go to "Start"-"Run"- and type "msconfig" (no quotes). Then, click the "Startup" tab and make sure all the programs that you want in your system tray have a check mark in the box next to them. After you've done that and rebooted, if you're still having issues, I'd run my anti-virus and Spyware removal programs. For Spyware removal I suggest running both Ad-Aware (which can be Googled and downloaded for free) and Spy Bot Search and Destroy. I run both programs because I see that one program will catch things the other one does not.... so, between the two of them you can be pretty sure you're clean. After your virus scan and spyware removal, if you are still having this problem I would look into backing up all of your important data that you do not want to lose (i.e. Email addresses, pictures, documents etc.) and see about getting a fresh install of XP. I know it sounds drastic, but i have seen too many insidious viruses wreak havoc on a system slowly and quietly...one day all you pictures are there and the next half are missing. Good luck and I hope this helps!

Submitted by: Zion07 of Las Vegas, Nevada

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Answer:

Robert,

Have you checked your computer for viruses and spyware yet? You said you used Mcafee, but I need to tell you that Norton and/or Mcafee don't fully protect you from viruses. There are some free antivirus applications that you can download for free, but I don't really trust those. I can recommend Panda Antivirus Titanium, or even better, Panda Platinum Internet Security.

The built-in firewall of Panda doesn't work that good, so you might want to download ZoneAlarm ( Free ) from http://www.zonealarm.com or http://www.zonelabs.com. Be sure to turn off Windows Firewall , before installing ZoneAlarm and also disabling the built-in firewall of Panda. Otherwise conflicts might occur.

In case a virus scan doesn't yield up any result, you can do an online virus scan with these online scanners:

1 ) Panda ActiveScan --> http://www.activescan.com

2 ) TrendMicro HouseCall Antivirus --> http://www.trendmicro.com ( then click Personal ) and click "Scan your computer for free" ). This will install a small ActiveX control , but that one is safe to install.Also Panda ActiveScan installs an ActiveX control and is also safe to use.

If there are no viruses found during the offline virus scan and the online virus scan, you are sure that there are no viruses on your computer. Next, let's check your computer for spyware. To do this install these anti-spyware applications on your computer:

1) Spybot Search & Destroy --> http://www.spybot.info

2) Ad-Aware SE Personal 1.06 --> http://www.lavasoft.de or http://www.lavasoftusa.com

Before doing a scan , please be sure to update it first. In Ad-Aware SE Personal 1.06 click the "Check for Updates" button. In Spybot Search & Destroy simply click the "Updates" button and click "Search for Updates". If it finds updates, just click the "Download Updates" button and the updates will be installed automatically. In Spybot Search & Destroy you can even set up an automatic scan. To do this, go to the Mode menu and choose "Advanced". It will give you a dialog box with a warning, just click "Yes". Three rectangular boxes will appear in the lower left corner: Settings , Tools and Info and License.

Click the Settings one and then choose "Taskmanager". Then click "Edit" to edit the settings. In the Schedule tab you can set a date and time that the scan will be automatically done. In the Tasks tab, be sure to check these boxes : "Only run when logged in" and "Enabled". If you don't set it Enabled it will not work. Be sure to do so. Click "OK" to close this window. At the "Settings for Taskmanager" please also check following boxes : "Repair problems after scheduled scan" and "Close program after finishing the scheduled task".

To go back to normal mode, just hit the Mode menu and click the "Normal" mode again. In the free version of Ad-Aware, it's not possible to set automatic scans. To prevent spyware from installing on your computer, I can suggest these good programs:

1) SpywareBlaster --> http://www.javacoolsoftware.com

2) SpywareGuard --> http://www.javacoolsoftware.com

Please remember to keep all programs up-to-date and check it frequently. It's also possible that Mcafee is causing your computer to slow down and not shutting down your computer right.

Submitted by: Pcfreakske2000

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Answer:

OK, I have had this happen to me before the reason this happens is you most likely have too many background applications running, or ones you dont want running that slow down your pc. I resolve this problem by going to http://www.mlin.net/ and downloading a program called Startup Control Panel. Once installed this program can be accessed from control panel and you simply untick the boxes of applications you dont want running in the background. Don't worry about damaging windows when doing this as key windows stuff won't show up on this program. Once you have unticked the stuff you dont want running and deleted it from the list reboot your pc and all your system tray icons should now load up on every startup.

Hope this helps.

Submitted by: Stuart B.

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Answer:

The icons on the right side of your taskbar represent programs that are running in the background after your PC starts up. XP offers the option of "hiding" these icons, so they don't fill up the space in your taskbar (Some PC's have a LOT of software running in the background). Here are the ways to see if this option is on for you, and also how to change the settings for each icon.

If you are running XP, right click on a blank space on your taskbar. On the popup menu, click on Properties. Look at the resulting screen - on the bottom is a check box that is labeled "Hide Inactive Icons." If that is checked, XP will "hide" the icons on the right side of the taskbar after a certain amount of time. Just to the right of this is a checkbox marked "customize". By clicking on that, you can see the different icons that appear on the right side of the taskbar, and the "hide" settings for each.

Click on one of the icon descriptions. You will see that the information in the "behavior" column now becomes a "drop down menu". By clicking on the arrow, you are given 3 choices - Always Hide, Hide when inactive, or Always show. You can choose one of these 3 choices for that icon, with the following results:

Always hide - will disappear or not show unless you click on the "show" arrow.

Hide when inactive - will show up for approx. 5-6 minutes, and then hide, unless you click on the "show" arrow.

Always show - the icon will always be visible.

After setting the settings for each icon, click on OK on this window, and also "OK" on the next window. You will now be back at your desktop. You will notice just to the left of these right-side icons is a small arrow pointing to the left. This is the "Show Icons" button. Click on it, and all the icons will appear, and the arrow will point to the right (Now it is the "Hide the Icons" button. You can either click on the arrow and hide the icons, or wait a second or two, and the icons will hide themselves.

This feature allows you to have a lot of software running, but not have your taskbar cluttered with icons. If you don't like this feature, go to "properties" and uncheck the Hide Inactive Icons checkbox.

Submitted by: Dave J.

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Answer:

Hi Robert,

I had a similar problem with my sound volume icon disappearing, and this was my solution..

1. Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into your computer's CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. Press and hold down the SHIFT key as you insert the CD-ROM to prevent it from starting automatically.
2. Click Start, and then click Run.
3. In the Open box, type cmd, and then click OK.
4. Type the following lines at the command prompt, pressing ENTER after each line, where CD-ROM drive is the drive letter of the computer's CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive that contains the Windows XP CD-ROM, and system_root is the path and folder name where the Windows system files are located (generally C:\Windows):
CD-ROM drive:
cd i386
expand sndvol32.ex_ system_root\system32\sndvol32.exe
Note that there is a space between "ex_" and "system_root" in this command.

For example, if your computer's CD-ROM drive is drive E, and the folder that contains the Windows system files is C:\Windows, type the following lines at the command prompt (pressing ENTER after each line):
e:
cd i386
expand sndvol32.ex_ c:\windows\system32\sndvol32.exe

5. Type exit to quit the command prompt.

6. Verify that you can start Volume Control and that the Volume icon is displayed in the notification area (if you selected this option).

7. Make sure that in the "Sound and Audio Device Properties" [accessible from the Control Panel] has a tick in the box marked 'Place Volume Icon in the taskbar'.
Your problem of the Volume Control icon disappearing should now be fixed; however, I am sorry that I can't remember the commands for the other icons that are missing. Perhaps others might be able to enlighten all of us.

Kind Regards.

Submitted by: Dave T.

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Answer:

Robert,

The icons that appear in your taskbar after Windows startup are determined by several factors, all of which are under your control.

First examine your Taskbar settings by right-clicking on any unused space between the Windows Start button and your first Taskbar icon, selecting "Properties" and then the "Taskbar" tab. To see how your icons are currently being displayed, check the "Hide inactive icons" box and click the "Customize" button. This will show a list of all applications that are currently active along with their default icon behavior. If the property box says "Hide when inactive" for an icon that you are missing, you can override its behavior by clicking that entry and changing the property to "Always show".

Next you should insure the maximum number of icons are always being displayed. Return to the "Taskbar" tab and make sure that the "Hide inactive icons", "Group similar taskbar buttons", "Auto-hide the taskbar" and "Lock the taskbar" boxes are all clear. If any of these properties are enabled it can cause one or more of the icons in your Taskbar to be suppressed. You should also choose "Keep the taskbar on top of other windows" to insure the icon area can increase as additional programs are started.

Finally you should check the individual program settings for each icon that you expect to see in the Taskbar. Some programs give you the option of displaying an icon in the Taskbar, QuickStart menu or Program Group, while others only display a Taskbar icon when the program needs attention (e.g. printer offline).

Regards.

Submitted by: Dave F. of Stillwater, Oklahoma

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Answer:

I had that problem in the past, and it was corrected by a Windows XP update file. Make sure you have the very latest updates from Microsoft. There is something in one of those updates that takes care of this problem. I installed a specialized program that was called Taskbar Repair. It helped to alleviate the problem, but finally windows provided an update to correct it right in the operating system. Microsoft usually doesn't tell you that a given fix will take care of a certain problem. You just discover that when you install it.

Submitted by: Ron G. of Phoenix, Arizona

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Answer:

This is one of simplest problems you will encounter. Over the years I have used NT software from NT 3.51 up to WinXP, I have noticed that if I have added or removed software and a service pack 1 or greater have been released, I need to re-install the most recent service pack of NT after removing or adding software. I have not traced the exact cause of this problems like missing icons, or in some cases the computer will not shutdown, but I have almost always solved odd problems with re-installing the current service pack for NT. I can only assume that installing new software, a dll file has been exchanged with an older version from the installed or removed software. When removing software, then Windows does not like the dll that has been left behind, but it tolerated it when the new software was present or vise versa. Some times this problem can be traced to old entries that are obsolete in the registry. By using a program like Tuneup Utilities 2006, which is free for 30 day. It will find registry omissions or de-fragment the registry. It can also setup your computer to work more efficiently as
internet surfer whether on broadband or dial up or to do image modification. Also you can look at the de-fragmentation utility in system tools to help improve the performance of the hard drive, but creating contiguous files, reducing de-fragmented files throughout the partition.

Submitted by: Eric S.

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Answer:

This article provides a workaround for Disappearing ICONs ...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;321213

Submitted by: Bill B.

i wish you would say some more, as it might help some of us restore icons that have disappeared.
I honestly have no idea what you're talking about, but if it worked for you, help us let it work for us?

I'm sorry I was being a smart a**.My only conclusion is to dump the original Dell(oem) XP that cam with my computer and buy and install a new XP.Remember to back up everthing before doing so.Like I said I have not had this problem with any other XP I have installed.Over a half dozen in the last 5 months.