Introduction
__________________________________________
Text from the song Spark by Amy Macdonald
I am the light in the dark
I am the march
I am the spark
Just dry your tears and I’ll be there
Don’t live for anger all this pain
Don’t worry, I’m ok, I’m ok now
Always in our hearts – R.I.P. Donna Buenaventura
__________________________________________
.
Welcome to Smokey’s Security Weblog!
Let’s introduce myself: my (nick)name is Smokey aka Smokey Bear.
Like my board Smokey’s Security Forums, this blog is mainly devoted to Security and all related issues. However, other issues like e.g. major occurances on my forum and social topics will be blogged too.
My board offer free security and malware related Support, Help, Advice and Education forums, however is not limited to such issues. Smokey’s have also forums with comprehensive Microsoft Windows related issues like Microsoft and Windows OS Based Products News, MS Download Center, MSDN Developer Information, software reviews, browser and tools forums, Webware, Social Networks info, Hardware- and Gadgets forums and last but not least a dedicated Windows Drivers, Linux Drivers, Firmware and BIOS Survey & Updates section containing (recently) released Drivers, Firmware and BIOSses, Windows 7 releases included. Note: most info on Smokey’s is real-time and therefore always up-to-date.
As extra service we have a OTL (formerly OTListIt2) Log Analyzing and Malware Removal/Cleaning Help Forum, full qualified OTL Log Analysers/Malware Hunters will be pleased to help you for free to clean your malware infected PC.
Smokey’s host and maintain the Official Jetico Inc. Support Forums, including the following products:
– Jetico Personal Firewall V1
– Jetico Personal Firewall V2
– Jetico BestCrypt for Windows
– Jetico BestCrypt for Linux
– Jetico BestCrypt for Mac
– Jetico BestCrypt Volume Encryption
– Jetico BCArchive
– Jetico BCWipe for Windows
– Jetico BCWipe for UNIX
Disclaimer: information in this blog can be based on (not confirmed) statements of (anonymous) sources, Smokey’s Security Weblog don’t take any responsabilty for the credibility of these sources and their statements. Also, statements and opinions expressed in articles, reviews and other materials herein, reproduced by me, are those of the authors.
The posts/articles in this blog can be supplemented with so called “Possibly related posts” links. Because these links are automatically generated by WordPress.com, Smokey’s Security Weblog have no influence on the links itself and/or content of them. Therefore this Weblog don’t take any responsability for these links and all related issues.
About Copyright and this Blog: it is allowed to reproduce (parts of) posts in this blog if this reproduction is provided with a direct link to the original blog post. It is NOT allowed to copy, use and/or reproduce any image or blog banner.
Blog comments policy: to restrain indecent and off-topic comments and spam, comments are reviewed before publishing. Therefore, delay in comment publishing is unavoidable. Obligatory language of comments is English.
.
My main task
Recommended: Free network protection with OpenDNS
Recommended: F-Secure PC Health Check
Recommended: Dr.Web CureIt! Free Malware Scan
Recommended: Kaspersky Online Antivirus Scan
Recommended: Online Safe Password Generator
Smokey’s is Friend of WOT – Web of Trust
Smokey’s Weblog Google FeedBurner
Add Smokey’s Weblog to your Technorati Favorites
Sunbelt Blog- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
- AV-Comparatives Blog
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
Giveaway of the Day: commercial software for FREE
Advertisement: Link Logger from Binary Visons
Your IP and location
Blog Visitor Statistics
Smokey's Security Weblog 
Thnks a ton for ur help..It works well
Ashwin..
Awesome. Most People’s response to dissapearing Task Bar is that you should go to task settings and unhide it……LOL i have been facing this problem since the last 9 months. everytime the only solution i get is to format my computer after it happens. It usually Happens after a few updates. Mostly SP1 (though not so sure). The Problem is Mocrosoft is sleeping over this matter and has no patch to resolve this. I have just Applied the solution you provided me 30 minutes ago and it seems for the first time since it started hapenning i can use the computer for more than 10 minutes without having to C.A.D. and restart explorer. AWESOME I should Say
Thank you tons for your help. This will be me new favorite website.
Hey, the problem has started reoccuring. i’ve been doing this explorer restart thing now for over a year no permenant help????
Thank You very much ! its good to have good people like you.
Wonderful!
Thanks for the advise on this problem. I’ve been fighting this disappearing icon problem for months. I hope that this will give me a solution. At least, when I do lose them I know how to get them back again. Thanks again!
Hello, in my case the standard icons like volume, network, power and sidebar are always shown. My problem are the rest of the application icons that disappear. I tried your advice, but it did not work.
Can you help me with that?
Matt
Does this happen all the time or sometimes?
It started to happen yesterday, but since then all the time since now.
Please shut down your PC, wait 20 seconds and start up your PC. Normally the missing icons should reappear.
Even this did not work. I now recovered the system as it was two days ago and now it works again. Do you have any clues what could be responsible for that?
Thanks anyway
Several problems can be the reason for disappeared taskbar icons, it is hard to say which one is the real cause. I found an interesting article and solutions about the subject, will add it to my “Windows Vista Disappearing System Tray Icons Quick Fix” post.
Easy direction with great success, thank you for your service, I’m sure I’ll be back. Thanks again!
Jim
I tried this and still had no luck getting back missing icons. Four out of six of the icons are in the taskbar, but I am still missing the internet connection icon and the sound control icon. Of course these are the two I use the most. Let me know if you have any idea what else I can do, this is rather frustrating. Thanks!
this as great, thanx man
I have recently encountered the “disappearing” icons (power, sound and network). I discovered that it corresponded to the time when I upgraded WinZip. So, the QuickZip icon was appearing on the taskbar. And, according to some other web page, sometimes other applications bump the Windows icons – which is unusual because, usually MS is the one pushing everything out of the way! LOL
But, I was able to solve this by going into WinZip as an Administrator and turning off the option to show the QuickZip icon on the taskbar. And, I hid some of the other applications’ icons using the “Customize” opition on the Notifications tab (in Taskbar Properties.)
But, I will copy/paste this solution for the future. You never know with MS Vista. I have been running with it for 14 months with few problems. I just started getting this disappearing icons thing.
This was so yummy.
Thanks
Thanks for your help. I talked my sister through her Vista disappearing taskbar problem easily with your instructions.
To restore your Volume control buttons, etc. in your Task Bar/System tray, try this:
Right Click on the Task Bar
Click “Start Menu” Tab. Select “Classic Start Menu”.
Select Notification Area” Tab. Now you should be able to put a check mark in the Volume, Power, etc. boxes.
Hope this helps.
(perhaps once you have these icons back, you can go back in at a later session and de-select Classic Start Menu if you don’t care for it).
Worked fine i did a restart and it held BUT as soon as I did a complete shutdown and powered back up same problem. It seems not to hold the registry deletions. Any one else have this problem?
yeah wonderful post, great help!
thank u a lot!
cumps!
Thank you! Great instructions! I like the way you write the instructions which is I call the “WD-40 instructions” style.
Always start with a verb and not to exceed 10 to 15 steps. If that accomplishes the job, then they are great instructions. Your instructions did help me recover my icons.
Just ran Vista SP2. Rebooted a few times already but the run key programs’ icons were not popping in the tray- though the programs themselves were actually running. After running the steps the icons are back (no reboot needed). I’m am stylin’ and profilin’ now. THANKS!!!
Super! Works perfectly. Thanks for your help!!
Thanks it worked great. Ha and it made me look pretty smart infront of the fam too!
WOW, you guy’s are good. I don’t know a lot about computers, and I have been told never mess with the registry but I followed your directions and it was a piece of cake.
Thanks Frank
Pleased we could help you 🙂
On Oct 20 I wrote you and thanked you for your help in restoring the volume control. I did not realize at that writing that when I put the computer into a full shut down that the volume meter would disappear. I have reset the reg. twice and went through a shut down and each time the volume control disappeared. Can you suggest any fix to this problem?
Thanks
Frank
Please try just this part of the fix:
5. Open up the Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), go to the “Processes” tab, select “explorer.exe” and click “End Process”.
6. Open the “Applications” tab and click “New Task…” at the bottom-right of the window.
7. In the message box that pops up type in “explorer.exe” and hit “OK”.
8. Explorer.exe will reload, and the missing icon should now be back in the system-tray where it belong.
worked like a charm. i am very grateful. thanks smokey! (and i will always do my best to prevent forest fires.) bob
I am pleased the fix solved your problem. I am even more pleased you will prevent forest fires, all people should do that! 🙂
Great answer… it works with Windows 7 too!!! Thanks a lot!!!!
Thank you!
Thank you!!! Worked perfectly.
I saved this to my favorites when I first had this problem about two years ago. I lose icons about twice a year. Is there any word on what causes this?
The cause of this problem is not known, but it’s almost certainly a bug in the OS.
Didn’t work as I wish it would’ve some icons appeared, some didn’t and other went missing…
The conclusion I’ve reached is there’s no one complete solution. But see (4) – this helps.
Here are some pointers I found from some searching:
1. In part it’s a Windows issue. In XP, someone found it was a timing problem, particularly with automatic login (no prompt). Fixes were produced for shell32.dll. These have not been done for Vista onwards as far as I’ve found.
2. Some found that delaying the launch of apps helped in this case. (This won’t solve the loss of icons in the case of an explorer crash & recovery).
3. In part it’s an application issue. Related to explorer crash and reload – some apps’ tray icons disappear – some don’t. It depends on whether the author has included a particular piece of code to refresh the tray icon or not.
4. Some 3rd party programs have attempted to address this issue. Most of these are restricted to XP or earlier. One I’ve found that does help with some (but not all) apps is Tray Wizard (freeware).
Some 5 icons that previously disappeared if I closed explorer.exe using hte task manager reappeared if I had Tray Wizard running. A side effect of Tray wizard is a ‘blinking’ tray notification area during log-on – or when an icon is added, for example. One icon is still missing though.