System Tray Icon Missing from System Tray in Windows XP
Symptoms
After the computer started, not all icons that should be present in the system tray (nowadays also called notification area) of the task bar is showing. Often, one or more icons are missing and disappearing from the task bar notication area.
This is known problem, or a bug of Windows XP. It has nothing to do with Hide Inactive Icons that tidy up your notification area.
Cause
The exact cause for the problem is unknown. According to Microsoft, the problem can be caused by the Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP) which discovers Universal Plug and Play devices on your network.
However, Microsoft Knowledge Base may not exactly the same symptom with notification area icons do not appearing issue, as it also has other symptoms:
- The pointer changes to an hour glass when you move it over the taskbar.
- Some icons do not appear in the notification area.
- When you click Start, nothing happens.
- The Start button does not work for several minutes, and then it starts to work.
- When you restart the computer, the icons in the notification area are missing. If you log off and log on with the same user account, the icons appear.
- When you click any icon in the Quick Launch bar immediately after starting the computer, the pointer changes to an hourglass.
Solutions
Possible solutions are many, although none confirmed to be working perfectly. If you have the symptoms as mentioned by Microsoft above, you can try out resolution suggested by Microsoft to resolve this behavior. Note that Microsoft’s solution will disable the SSDP Discovery Service, which caused new devices on the network cannot be found automatically.
1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.
2. Click Services and Applications.
3. Double-click Services.
4. In the Services list, right-click SSDP Discovery Service, and then click Properties.
5. On the General tab, in the Startup type drop-down list, click Disabled.
6. Click OK.
If it doesn’t work, the alternative would be disable both SSDP Discovery Service and Universal Plug and Play Device Host. Repeat the above steps for both services.
You may try to choose Automatic at step 5 instead of Disabled, as it’s reported some people has success with this.
If you need Universal Plug and Play services and wouldn’t want to disable it, Francesco Ostuni suggested Ostuni Workaround which does not disable the uPNP service. The steps as below (only applicable on Windows XP with Service Pack 2):
1. Open My Network Places.
2. Click Hide Icons for Networked uPnP Devices at the Tasks panel.
3. For Windows Classic theme users, click Tools and the Folder Options in Windows Explorer, and then select Show Common Tasks in Folders to see the option specified in step 2.
Or,
1. Open Control Panel.
2. Click Add or Remove Programs.
3. Click Add/Remove Windows Components.
4. Select Networking Services.
5. Click Details button.
6. Uncheck (remove) the UPnP User Interface.
7. Click OK.
The most reliable way to solve the problem is to logout and then login again to Windows XP.
If you don’t want to logout and login Windows XP after starting the PC, Disable Automatic Logon is a possible way to solve the issue by the following steps:
1. Click on Start.
2. Click on Run.
3. Type “control userpasswords2″.
4. Click OK.
5. Check (Select) Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer.
6. Click OK.
Other solutions suggested including using of programs that manage the timing,sequence and delay of programs loaded on startup of Windows XP. Some programs are Tech-Pro Utilities Startup, Startup Delayer, StartUp Organizer and Startup Guru.
If you’re missing all icons in notification area, check if it’s due to system tray been disabled.
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Entries (RSS)
November 30th, 2009 18:12
I Missing icons in Windows XP Notification Area
November 20th, 2009 03:23
Yeh! It worked here too, many thanks!!
September 7th, 2009 17:35
Many thanks guys – finally my icons re-appear after hiding upnp icons!
August 24th, 2009 23:45
Thanks, it fixed that bug for me, how in the world you guys figure this out is beyond me..Thanks
August 17th, 2009 15:09
Another trick worked for me :
- Shutdown and then unplung the computer ;
- Push the On button and keep it pushed for 10 seconds. Release.
- Plug the computer again, restart Win XP.
- Be surprised : the icon is back (at least on my computer – and some others)
I know, that sounds odd…
May 14th, 2009 02:52
Thank you very much. I finally got the safe hardware removal icon back.
May 4th, 2009 22:42
The ssdp disabling seemed to do the trick. I am not sure exactly when i lost the icons, but had recently installed a printer on the usb port and had downloaded some programs and installed some. I did figure out that if i created a new identity the icons on that and other identity on the computer were fine. if i logged into one of them first, the icons were there on my normal identity. Before that the icons were unpredictable. Thanks for the info. been looking everywhere and was wondering is something major had been accidentally changed. i was so tired of control panel, sound disabling and reenabling to put sound icon in taskbar.
April 19th, 2009 08:05
Disabling SSDP worked for me – THANK YOU
March 9th, 2009 20:14
Just wait a couple of seconds before entering your session (about 30 sec.). That will let the SSDP service does its check before opening any startup applications and avoid the bug to occur.
February 7th, 2009 09:10
I had this problem for a while. I tried everything and nothing worked. I finally tried Bootvis from Microsoft and that fixed it.
February 3rd, 2009 07:54
Disabling SSDP worked for me! Thanks!
November 20th, 2008 18:58
Disabling UPnP may adversely affect wirless network connections and networked printeer management.
I suggest you go to On Kellys Korner Websitewhere there is a downloadable tool for managing the task bar fixing missing icons in the notifaction area:
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July 23rd, 2008 10:09
You can also just kill and restart explorer.exe. Use control-alt-del to bring up the Process Manager. Find explorer.exe and kill it. Then select Run… in the Process Manager menu and type explorer.exe
June 30th, 2008 03:39
[...] if you suddenly lose or cannot find all your icons on the system tray (it’s different from missing icons in system tray notification area), try searching for NoTrayItemsDisplay registry key at above and any location, and if found, set [...]
May 25th, 2008 18:43
just restart explorer.exe
March 2nd, 2008 09:12
WinDeveloper:
Thanks
) Was reading about this problem for about one hour before coming to your suggestion. Diabled the SSDP Discovery Service but at first it didn’t work so I thought, ah well another solution failed. But after rebooting the icon now appears in the notification area. Can’t be 100% sure it’s your solution but I’m at least 90% sure the other solutions didn’t work, so thanks 
)
February 28th, 2008 05:27
I never saw my printer icons disappear before today when they vanished for no apparent reason. Nothing I did could get them to reappear. Solution number one did it for me me, with startup type set to automatic.
thanks for the tip….
December 28th, 2007 19:30
Great tip ! Worked for me disabling the SSDP Discovery Service. Now i have back my taskbar icons. Thanx a lot !
December 12th, 2007 18:46
If you use AVG7.5 antivirus Antivirus this problem will occur…….
December 6th, 2007 08:53
Thanks for the info!
Un-checking the “UPnP User Interface” in the networking services, solved the problem for me.
November 23rd, 2007 01:55
I’ve had a problem with icons not loading in the taskbar for some time and managed to find the cause in the services.msc area. My AVG Anti-Virus and AVG Anti-Spy were 2 icons affected along with the speaker icon and none of them would show up after having being installed for quite awhile. The main problem was Intel Desktop Utilities Service which was set to auto and the service started. I stopped the service and set for manual and the taskbar icons all popped up on the next reboot. I have had similar problems in the past also with other missing taskbar icons and slow windows load with the following services. SSDP Discovery Service, Universal Plug and Play Device Host, and Windows Image Acquisition Services were the main culprits which caused similar taskbar problems and slow loading. If not used often set all these to a minimum of manual and stop the services or even disable them if not needed at all and see if you notice any improvement to Windows starting speed or missing taskbar icons. Good luck.
October 3rd, 2007 19:21
I have seen several computers having a similar problem with missing content in systray. Most of the problems were solved using the different solutiuons. But one of the computers was very tricky. Tried all the solutions available on the internet. Nothing seemed to work. Then I found a solution involving the “DCOM Server Process Launcher”. The service can be found in the “Microsoft Managemens Console”
The DCOM-service was for some unknown reasons disabled. When starting the service the icons showed up in systray almost imidiately.
Set the DCOM-service to “automatic”
Solution confirmed by other users.
August 21st, 2007 23:01
Thanks, number two worked best for me.
Great guide.
August 1st, 2007 02:36
My mother is experiencing a similar problem but there seems to be one diference. When she turns on the computer she can’t get past the click on UserID part. There are no icons present that represent a USER ID, either hers or the default “guest” Until she can get past that step, she doesn’t have the start button on the bottom of the screen. She doesn’t have anything? How can I employ some of these solutions you have suggested when I can’t even get to the “control panel”, the “dos promt” or “my computer without accessing the “start” button? Are there any key combinations that will at least give me access to “start” and all its associated links?
Thanks
May 30th, 2007 05:20
I have a similar problem and this solution does not work, I solve the problem with the Fermu´s Program: http://www.fermu.com/component/option,com_bookmarks/Itemid,43/task,detail/id,25/lang,es/
selecting in the “notification area” option: “show all listed try icons”.
May 29th, 2007 15:52
Is it possible that the active directory (windos server 2003) preventing the computer users to show it’s system tray icons? I am using a domain network. I tried to configure the group policy but nothings change. The icons disappear everytime I log on to domain user. But it’s always show up when I am logging to administrator account. hmmm, what is the possible problem? Any solutions there?
May 9th, 2007 04:22
This problem is caused by TuneUp Utilities RegistryCleaner. Be warned!
March 8th, 2007 00:28
Many thanks for the info.
I had only to log off and log in and the icons where there.
March 3rd, 2007 04:05
Great and perfect solution!
I have clicked “show UPnP” ocasionally, and I have forgot about it, so I didn’t the cause of the problem. Thanks My Digital Life and thanks Google!
February 26th, 2007 08:01
Thanks! I’ve been having this problem for quite a while now, and this solution worked perfectly.
February 23rd, 2007 16:46
abduljakul’s solution works – period. It is also the only solution that seems to make the most sense. I remember having Windows98SE, and it was best to WAIT for everything to load before doing anything. I had the same exact problem as all of you, and the thing to do is simply WAIT about 1-2 minutes before logging on. Watching the LED light works.
February 15th, 2007 20:52
Thanks for the solution!
I have a Dell Latitude D820 pc. I had this problem for almost 3/4 months now.
I disable the SSDP as mention and it worked for me.
I search for it on the net and another solution is that if you log off and log on to the pc again that will bring back all the icons in the tray.
Regards
Zeb
January 12th, 2007 07:54
If you use FProt Antivirus this problem will occur…….
December 8th, 2006 21:08
I bet all of you played with Tweak UI not knowing what happens, when u use the
Taskbar and Startmenu-> show taskbar and notification icons button.
You can just switch all of your buttons on and off, why so ever….
I could have punched the people telling me to go to the properties and switch of “hiding inactive icons”…..
September 23rd, 2006 08:58
I also have this annoying bugs. My observation is this happens when you have lots of programs/services that are loading at startup at the user logs-on too quickly after starting the computer. My workaround is to delay logging on after starting the computer to let the startup programs/services load themselves properly.
The length of delay depends on how much time the startup programs need to load. I usually estimate it by looking at my hard disk LED. it is busy for around 1 to 2 minutes after powering on the pc.
When I can sense that hard disk activity has gone to minimum, that is the time I logon to windows and all the icons that i expected to show up on the system tray was there.
It works 100% all the time for me.
June 22nd, 2006 09:20
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