Vista's special system tray notification icons missing and disable

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Since installing a Realtek driver & software package for my onboard sound (as
my sound card manufacturer has yet to release 64-bit drivers), the 3
notification icons - Power, Network, Volume - disappeared. Also, when
right-clicking the notification area, the 'Customize Notification Icons'
option is grayed out. On the 'Notification Area' tab of Taskbar Properties,
for the selected System Icons, Clock was fine, but the other 3 were not
checked, and grayed out.

Obviously, my first instinct was to remove the software and reboot, and that
has helped to an extent, as the Power option in Taskbar Properties is no
longer grayed out, and I can select it and it displays. But Volume and
Network are still unavailable.

Presuming that the selections made there are stored in the registry, I ran
Process Monitor while changing and applying the selection of the Power icon,
but that doesn't show up any relevent (or changed) RegSetValue entries.

So now, I'm at a loss, and I look to you to tell me where these settings are
stored, so I can get the Volume and Network icons back, an re-enable the
'Customize Notification Icons' option.

Chris

Why not run System Restore and back out to before the driver update?

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] rgharper@gmail.com
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"chrisminett" <chrisminett@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1B33E2D9-6CC8-4F3B-A6E6-B7B4C25631B9@microsoft.com...
> Since installing a Realtek driver & software package for my onboard sound
> (as
> my sound card manufacturer has yet to release 64-bit drivers), the 3
> notification icons - Power, Network, Volume - disappeared. Also, when
> right-clicking the notification area, the 'Customize Notification Icons'
> option is grayed out. On the 'Notification Area' tab of Taskbar
> Properties,
> for the selected System Icons, Clock was fine, but the other 3 were not
> checked, and grayed out.
>
> Obviously, my first instinct was to remove the software and reboot, and
> that
> has helped to an extent, as the Power option in Taskbar Properties is no
> longer grayed out, and I can select it and it displays. But Volume and
> Network are still unavailable.
>
> Presuming that the selections made there are stored in the registry, I ran
> Process Monitor while changing and applying the selection of the Power
> icon,
> but that doesn't show up any relevent (or changed) RegSetValue entries.
>
> So now, I'm at a loss, and I look to you to tell me where these settings
> are
> stored, so I can get the Volume and Network icons back, an re-enable the
> 'Customize Notification Icons' option.
>
> Chris

Chris,

I have a similar issue with my tablet pc and vista. I cannot remeber when
the icon disappeared and therefore am unable to link it to any specific
software I installed on my tablet. Though, I have not touched the onboard
sound drivers since I setup the machine so I don't think it is that, that has
caused the network icon to disappear and the options to enable them grey out.

Does anyone else have any ideas about what could be causing this?

"chrisminett" wrote:

> Since installing a Realtek driver & software package for my onboard sound (as
> my sound card manufacturer has yet to release 64-bit drivers), the 3
> notification icons - Power, Network, Volume - disappeared. Also, when
> right-clicking the notification area, the 'Customize Notification Icons'
> option is grayed out. On the 'Notification Area' tab of Taskbar Properties,
> for the selected System Icons, Clock was fine, but the other 3 were not
> checked, and grayed out.
>
> Obviously, my first instinct was to remove the software and reboot, and that
> has helped to an extent, as the Power option in Taskbar Properties is no
> longer grayed out, and I can select it and it displays. But Volume and
> Network are still unavailable.
>
> Presuming that the selections made there are stored in the registry, I ran
> Process Monitor while changing and applying the selection of the Power icon,
> but that doesn't show up any relevent (or changed) RegSetValue entries.
>
> So now, I'm at a loss, and I look to you to tell me where these settings are
> stored, so I can get the Volume and Network icons back, an re-enable the
> 'Customize Notification Icons' option.
>
> Chris

Last night I had the same trouble with grayed out options.
Mine was fixed by simply just logging off and logging back on... had no idea
what caused it.
Well.. my main browser is maxthon, but I also set back IE7 as default
browser for a while...
Seems doing that helps a lot of issues...
Lilo

"Jay" <Jay@discussions.microsoft.com> skrev i meddelelsen
news:4DD4217B-398D-45CB-BA0A-197D005BECE8@microsoft.com...
> Chris,
>
> I have a similar issue with my tablet pc and vista. I cannot remeber when
> the icon disappeared and therefore am unable to link it to any specific
> software I installed on my tablet. Though, I have not touched the onboard
> sound drivers since I setup the machine so I don't think it is that, that
> has
> caused the network icon to disappear and the options to enable them grey
> out.
>
> Does anyone else have any ideas about what could be causing this?
>
> "chrisminett" wrote:
>
>> Since installing a Realtek driver & software package for my onboard sound
>> (as
>> my sound card manufacturer has yet to release 64-bit drivers), the 3
>> notification icons - Power, Network, Volume - disappeared. Also, when
>> right-clicking the notification area, the 'Customize Notification Icons'
>> option is grayed out. On the 'Notification Area' tab of Taskbar
>> Properties,
>> for the selected System Icons, Clock was fine, but the other 3 were not
>> checked, and grayed out.
>>
>> Obviously, my first instinct was to remove the software and reboot, and
>> that
>> has helped to an extent, as the Power option in Taskbar Properties is no
>> longer grayed out, and I can select it and it displays. But Volume and
>> Network are still unavailable.
>>
>> Presuming that the selections made there are stored in the registry, I
>> ran
>> Process Monitor while changing and applying the selection of the Power
>> icon,
>> but that doesn't show up any relevent (or changed) RegSetValue entries.
>>
>> So now, I'm at a loss, and I look to you to tell me where these settings
>> are
>> stored, so I can get the Volume and Network icons back, an re-enable the
>> 'Customize Notification Icons' option.
>>
>> Chris

On 4 Mar, 23:26, "Richard G. Harper" <rghar...@email.com> wrote:
> Why not runSystemRestore and back out to before the driver update?
>
> --
> Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] rghar...@gmail.com
> * NEW! Catch my blog ...http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
> * PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
> * The Website -http://rgharper.mvps.org/
> * HELP us help YOU ...http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
>
> "chrisminett" <chrismin...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>
> news:1B33E2D9-6CC8-4F3B-A6E6-B7B4C25631B9@microsoft.com...
>
> > Since installing a Realtek driver & software package for my onboard sound
> > (as
> > my sound card manufacturer has yet to release 64-bit drivers), the 3
> > notificationicons- Power, Network, Volume - disappeared. Also, when
> > right-clicking the notification area, the 'Customize NotificationIcons'
> > option is grayed out. On the 'Notification Area' tab of Taskbar
> > Properties,
> > for the selectedSystemIcons, Clock was fine, but the other 3 were not
> > checked, and grayed out.
>
> > So now, I'm at a loss, and I look to you to tell me where these settings
> > are
> > stored, so I can get the Volume and Networkiconsback, an re-enable the
> > 'Customize NotificationIcons' option.
>
> > Chris

I have the same problem. I can't think of any drivers i've installed
to have caused the problem. Googling for the answer has produced no
results, neither has searching the newsgroups. Any help would really
be appreciated.

Cheers

The problem cleared itself up, in a way. As I mentioned before, after
uninstalling the driver, I got the power icon back, but the Network and
Volume icons were still unavailable. Well, after a few more normal reboots
(not changing any drivers, or anything like that) I checked again, and found
that the options were once again available, and ticking them brought the
missing icons straight back!

Needless to say that I won't be installing Realtek's driver package again -
and I long for the time when my sound card manufacturer releases 64-bit
drivers - currently there's only an estimate for one of their other cards for
mid-April! Joy!

Anyway, sorry I can't be more specific to what fixed this problem for me.

Regards,
Chris

"Googs" wrote:

> On 4 Mar, 23:26, "Richard G. Harper" <rghar...@email.com> wrote:
> > Why not runSystemRestore and back out to before the driver update?
> >
> > --
> > Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] rghar...@gmail.com
> > * NEW! Catch my blog ...http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
> > * PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
> > * The Website -http://rgharper.mvps.org/
> > * HELP us help YOU ...http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
> >
> > "chrisminett" <chrismin...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> >
> > news:1B33E2D9-6CC8-4F3B-A6E6-B7B4C25631B9@microsoft.com...
> >
> > > Since installing a Realtek driver & software package for my onboard sound
> > > (as
> > > my sound card manufacturer has yet to release 64-bit drivers), the 3
> > > notificationicons- Power, Network, Volume - disappeared. Also, when
> > > right-clicking the notification area, the 'Customize NotificationIcons'
> > > option is grayed out. On the 'Notification Area' tab of Taskbar
> > > Properties,
> > > for the selectedSystemIcons, Clock was fine, but the other 3 were not
> > > checked, and grayed out.
> >
> > > So now, I'm at a loss, and I look to you to tell me where these settings
> > > are
> > > stored, so I can get the Volume and Networkiconsback, an re-enable the
> > > 'Customize NotificationIcons' option.
> >
> > > Chris
>
> I have the same problem. I can't think of any drivers i've installed
> to have caused the problem. Googling for the answer has produced no
> results, neither has searching the newsgroups. Any help would really
> be appreciated.
>
> Cheers
>
>

On 16 Mar, 23:54, chrisminett <chrismin...@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote:
> The problem cleared itself up, in a way. As I mentioned before, after
> uninstalling the driver, I got the power icon back, but the Network and
> Volumeiconswere still unavailable. Well, after a few more normal reboots
> (not changing any drivers, or anything like that) I checked again, and found
> that the options were once again available, and ticking them brought themissingiconsstraight back!

Same here. I was playing around with "hp quick launch buttons",
switched it on and after a reboot all the system tray buttons were
back. I'm going to play around with it a bit more, but at least
they're back now.

I have that problem too, sometimes when I restart they come back.
my guest is a regestry issue.

"Jay" <Jay@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4DD4217B-398D-45CB-BA0A-197D005BECE8@microsoft.com...
> Chris,
>
> I have a similar issue with my tablet pc and vista. I cannot remeber when
> the icon disappeared and therefore am unable to link it to any specific
> software I installed on my tablet. Though, I have not touched the onboard
> sound drivers since I setup the machine so I don't think it is that, that
> has
> caused the network icon to disappear and the options to enable them grey
> out.
>
> Does anyone else have any ideas about what could be causing this?
>
> "chrisminett" wrote:
>
>> Since installing a Realtek driver & software package for my onboard sound
>> (as
>> my sound card manufacturer has yet to release 64-bit drivers), the 3
>> notification icons - Power, Network, Volume - disappeared. Also, when
>> right-clicking the notification area, the 'Customize Notification Icons'
>> option is grayed out. On the 'Notification Area' tab of Taskbar
>> Properties,
>> for the selected System Icons, Clock was fine, but the other 3 were not
>> checked, and grayed out.
>>
>> Obviously, my first instinct was to remove the software and reboot, and
>> that
>> has helped to an extent, as the Power option in Taskbar Properties is no
>> longer grayed out, and I can select it and it displays. But Volume and
>> Network are still unavailable.
>>
>> Presuming that the selections made there are stored in the registry, I
>> ran
>> Process Monitor while changing and applying the selection of the Power
>> icon,
>> but that doesn't show up any relevent (or changed) RegSetValue entries.
>>
>> So now, I'm at a loss, and I look to you to tell me where these settings
>> are
>> stored, so I can get the Volume and Network icons back, an re-enable the
>> 'Customize Notification Icons' option.
>>
>> Chris

I'm having the missing icon problem as well. However I think everyone else
has more savy than I do. I'm having the grayed out issue so I will continue
to try and reboot and see if I can get them back, but I haven't made any
changes so don't understand what's going on. Hopefully I'll keep checking
back here and someone will have some helpful info that I can follow. I guess
patience is the key.

"Amrykid" wrote:

> I have that problem too, sometimes when I restart they come back.
> my guest is a regestry issue.
>
> "Jay" <Jay@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:4DD4217B-398D-45CB-BA0A-197D005BECE8@microsoft.com...
> > Chris,
> >
> > I have a similar issue with my tablet pc and vista. I cannot remeber when
> > the icon disappeared and therefore am unable to link it to any specific
> > software I installed on my tablet. Though, I have not touched the onboard
> > sound drivers since I setup the machine so I don't think it is that, that
> > has
> > caused the network icon to disappear and the options to enable them grey
> > out.
> >
> > Does anyone else have any ideas about what could be causing this?
> >
> > "chrisminett" wrote:
> >
> >> Since installing a Realtek driver & software package for my onboard sound
> >> (as
> >> my sound card manufacturer has yet to release 64-bit drivers), the 3
> >> notification icons - Power, Network, Volume - disappeared. Also, when
> >> right-clicking the notification area, the 'Customize Notification Icons'
> >> option is grayed out. On the 'Notification Area' tab of Taskbar
> >> Properties,
> >> for the selected System Icons, Clock was fine, but the other 3 were not
> >> checked, and grayed out.
> >>
> >> Obviously, my first instinct was to remove the software and reboot, and
> >> that
> >> has helped to an extent, as the Power option in Taskbar Properties is no
> >> longer grayed out, and I can select it and it displays. But Volume and
> >> Network are still unavailable.
> >>
> >> Presuming that the selections made there are stored in the registry, I
> >> ran
> >> Process Monitor while changing and applying the selection of the Power
> >> icon,
> >> but that doesn't show up any relevent (or changed) RegSetValue entries.
> >>
> >> So now, I'm at a loss, and I look to you to tell me where these settings
> >> are
> >> stored, so I can get the Volume and Network icons back, an re-enable the
> >> 'Customize Notification Icons' option.
> >>
> >> Chris
>

Rather than Reboot, try just Logging Off, then back On. I don't know why it
happens, though. It's happened to me, occasionally, as well.

"cookie1863" <cookie1863@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4087FACC-FEB1-4B59-8736-86AB2371C054@microsoft.com...
> I'm having the missing icon problem as well. However I think everyone
> else
> has more savy than I do. I'm having the grayed out issue so I will
> continue
> to try and reboot and see if I can get them back, but I haven't made any
> changes so don't understand what's going on. Hopefully I'll keep checking
> back here and someone will have some helpful info that I can follow. I
> guess
> patience is the key.
>
> "Amrykid" wrote:
>
>> I have that problem too, sometimes when I restart they come back.
>> my guest is a regestry issue.
>>
>> "Jay" <Jay@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:4DD4217B-398D-45CB-BA0A-197D005BECE8@microsoft.com...
>> > Chris,
>> >
>> > I have a similar issue with my tablet pc and vista. I cannot remeber
>> > when
>> > the icon disappeared and therefore am unable to link it to any specific
>> > software I installed on my tablet. Though, I have not touched the
>> > onboard
>> > sound drivers since I setup the machine so I don't think it is that,
>> > that
>> > has
>> > caused the network icon to disappear and the options to enable them
>> > grey
>> > out.
>> >
>> > Does anyone else have any ideas about what could be causing this?
>> >
>> > "chrisminett" wrote:
>> >
>> >> Since installing a Realtek driver & software package for my onboard
>> >> sound
>> >> (as
>> >> my sound card manufacturer has yet to release 64-bit drivers), the 3
>> >> notification icons - Power, Network, Volume - disappeared. Also, when
>> >> right-clicking the notification area, the 'Customize Notification
>> >> Icons'
>> >> option is grayed out. On the 'Notification Area' tab of Taskbar
>> >> Properties,
>> >> for the selected System Icons, Clock was fine, but the other 3 were
>> >> not
>> >> checked, and grayed out.
>> >>
>> >> Obviously, my first instinct was to remove the software and reboot,
>> >> and
>> >> that
>> >> has helped to an extent, as the Power option in Taskbar Properties is
>> >> no
>> >> longer grayed out, and I can select it and it displays. But Volume and
>> >> Network are still unavailable.
>> >>
>> >> Presuming that the selections made there are stored in the registry, I
>> >> ran
>> >> Process Monitor while changing and applying the selection of the Power
>> >> icon,
>> >> but that doesn't show up any relevent (or changed) RegSetValue
>> >> entries.
>> >>
>> >> So now, I'm at a loss, and I look to you to tell me where these
>> >> settings
>> >> are
>> >> stored, so I can get the Volume and Network icons back, an re-enable
>> >> the
>> >> 'Customize Notification Icons' option.
>> >>
>> >> Chris
>>

[perrelet]

Hey all,

I've got the solution...

In the notification area properties you'll notice an option to customize how explorer handles pevious tray icons. The only problem with this is explorer saves a setting for EVERY icon ever loaded.

For some reason if you clear this history of icons; the power, network, volume....icons will all reappear.

- brilliant i hear you say.

----------------------------------
CLEARING THE TRAY ICON HISTORY

> run 'regedit.exe'

> goto key 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify'

> delete keys 'IconStreams' & 'PastIconsStream'

> start task manager, go to processes and kill explorer.exe

> go to applications in the task manager, hit new task and type 'explorer.exe'

> explorer will now reboot and woohey, your icons should return.

> crazy if you ask me.........

------

Also ive found some more detailed instructions with some pictures and shiny bits here if you can't follow me:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...windows-vista/

------

MEEP MEEP

I would have thought it better to restart explorer by logging off and
back on, rather than killing and restarting it. I don't know if it's
more reliable on Vista, but I sometimes found on previous versions of
Windows that killing explorer and restarting it did not always reload
all the icons in the system tray anyway, particularly those belonging to
other applications which are loaded at logon.


perrelet wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> I've got the solution...
>
> In the notification area properties you'll notice an option to
> customize how explorer handles pevious tray icons. The only problem
> with this is explorer saves a setting for EVERY icon ever loaded.
>
> For some reason if you clear this history of icons; the power, network,
> volume....icons will all reappear.
>
> - brilliant i hear you say.
>
> ----------------------------------
> CLEARING THE TRAY ICON HISTORY
>
>> run 'regedit.exe'
>
>> goto key 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local
> Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify'
>
>> delete keys 'IconStreams' & 'PastIconsStream'
>
>> start task manager, go to processes and kill explorer.exe
>
>> go to applications in the task manager, hit new task and type
> 'explorer.exe'
>
>> explorer will now reboot and woohey, your icons should return.
>
>> crazy if you ask me.........
>
> ------
>
> Also ive found some more detailed instructions with some pictures and
> shiny bits here if you can't follow me:
>
> http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...windows-vista/
>
> ------
>
> MEEP MEEP
>
>

[perrelet]

nice point.

but as far as i have seen so far, vista hasn't shared this issue.

However I would agree this is a safer way to go about rebooting explorer.

[rexbasham]

In addition to the Notification Area icons no longer showing up and the greyed out Volume, Network, and Power icons in the Taskbar/Start Menu Properties Notification Area tab:

Any animated icons cease to function (i.e. they are no longer animated).

The Customize Start Menu selection 'Open submenus when I pause on them with the mouse pointer' no longer works. You have to actually click the menu tab to get it to open.

Restarting the machine clears the problems and the problems occur if you have multiple users defined and switch users. Once you do the switch user, the only way to get the missing icons, non-functioning animated icons, and non-functioning auto-open on submenus corrected is to restart the machine. IMHO, this is unacceptable.

I'm still looking into which services I can stop or start to correct the errors without the system restart. If I find something useful, I'll post it.

Cheers, rexb.

rexbasham;708111 Wrote:
> In addition to the Notification Area icons no longer showing up and the
> greyed out Volume, Network, and Power icons in the Taskbar/Start Menu
> Properties Notification Area tab:
>
> Any animated icons cease to function (i.e. they are no longer
> animated).
>
> The Customize Start Menu selection 'Open submenus when I pause on them
> with the mouse pointer' no longer works. You have to actually click
> the menu tab to get it to open.
>
> Restarting the machine clears the problems and the problems occur if
> you have multiple users defined and switch users. Once you do the
> switch user, the only way to get the missing icons, non-functioning
> animated icons, and non-functioning auto-open on submenus corrected is
> to restart the machine. IMHO, this is unacceptable.
>
> I'm still looking into which services I can stop or start to correct
> the errors without the system restart. If I find something useful,
> I'll post it.
>
> Cheers, rexb.
>
>
> --
> rexbasham
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> rexbasham's Profile: 'rexbasham's profile on TechArena Computer
> Hardware Support Forums of India'
> (http://forums.techarena.in/members/48846.htm)
> View this thread: 'Vista's special system tray notification icons
> missing and disable - Vista Help'
> (Vista's special system tray notification icons missing and disable)
>
> 'TechArena Community - Technology and Computer Hardware Support Forums
> of India' (http://forums.techarena.in)

Hi Rexbasham,

Have you tried resetting the Notification icons to see if that helps?

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/99...ons-reset.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn


--
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*There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask
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