taskbar icons gone?


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all of the sudden i have no more icons in my XP taskbar. it has nothing to do with the individual programs, becuase they all say there should be an icon in the task bar, and the program is running because it shows up in the processes dialog. anybody else have this problem or know how to fix it?

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taskbar

or system tray?

if its system tray

thats a something typical

when my explorer restarts after a crash the sys tray icons all disappear

unless its active

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probably just explorer being odd, but from my experience, its pretty smart about reloaded systray icons after a crash (in XP). Still, it may be worth killing and reloading explorer via ctrl-alt-delete > task manager > new task > explorer.exe

I'd reboot / reload explorer to fix the immediate problem, then try to work out why explorer keeps crashing.

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I believe all u have to do is end the task of the application u want in the systray and open it again, killing explorer and launching it again will do nothing as this is how the problem accured in the first place, because the programs in the system trays will have lost the handle on explorer, but i believe alot of newer applications have it coded into them to recreate there handles if explorer.exe does crash but not every app does.

anyway hope this helps :)

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in my (incredably extensive) windows XP experience, when u reload explorer, it will cause apps to reappear in the sys tray 90% of the time.

The difference is, when explorer was closed the first time, it was probably a violent exit, where as this time you'd be telling explorer to close then restart. Ending the application is a very annoying solution, generally means reloading loads of apps, many of which will be hosting services. The explorer method is well worth trying first.

I'm really getting tired of people on neowin saying "this is wrong" or "this will do nothing", when they blatently havn't tried it.

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Originally posted by Jon  

Ending the application is a very annoying solution, generally means reloading loads of apps, many of which will be hosting services. The explorer method is well worth trying first.

I'm really getting tired of people on neowin saying "this is wrong" or "this will do nothing", when they blatently havn't tried it.

what do u mean i blatently havn't tried! Just like you, i am speaking from my experiance, not everyones is the same you know! and its posts like yours that put people off from trying to help people incase they get ripped apart.

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so, i can get the icons back in the systray by ending the process in the task manager and then starting the program again, but when i restart they aren't there again. I don't know what to do

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Originally posted by smerickson  

so, i can get the icons back in the systray by ending the process in the task manager and then starting the program again, but when i restart they aren't there again.  I don't know what to do

sorry i can't help, i thought the problem you where refering to was when explorer.exe crashes and u lose all your systray icons, but the problem you are on about i have never come across.

Sorry :(

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could it be the feature built into XP that hides inactive systray icons? If thats the case, is there a little circle with a chevron in it beside the time? Should look like < in a circle. Click it and you'll see your icons again.

I've also experienced the chevron disappearing and leaving me no way to see the icons in the systray again, unless I disabled the feature and re-enabled it. A reboot also helped.

I'm on W2K at the moment, but I believe you can find the hiding inactive systray icons feature if you right click the taskbar, and choose properties. You'll find it in there. Play around with it..I'm sure this is the problem.

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well why dont u guys try this for a start

load ICQ...

open it

end the explorer.exe

and re-open n ull see that the icon doesnt appear back unless

there is any active movement within the program .. e.g. someone goes online, or someone messages

but on the other hand msn messenger seems to always keeps its own active state and re-appears

strange

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