Taskbar question

I have certain program icons marked to show in my taskbar upon boot up. However, they do not all appear everytime I boot up my system. Lately it seems that one of them will fail to show; and it varies which one will fail to show. I can either reboot or restart the computer and sometimes this will cause all of the program icons to appear but not every time. Not a show stopper but it is aggravating. I can refresh the program icons on the desktop but not in the taskbar. Any ideas? All replies will be appreciated and I would thank you in advance.

John

 

What operating system?

 

Sorry I should have said what system in my post. I am still using Windows XP Pro SP3.

 

Back up your registry *first* -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756

Use the tips listed below:
*These are advanced user tactics in fixing your issue - do not proceed if you are not comfortable using them*
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_t.htm

Note end of support for Windows XP:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/endofsupport.aspx

 

To me at least, this is not very clear. By "taskbar" are you referring to notification area next to the clock or the XP's quick launch? How exactly did you "mark" them to show up?

 

By "taskbar" you mean the "tray" (notification area), right? And by "marked" I'm guessing you mean programs that have an option to show an icon in the tray and you've enabled it. Is this correct?

 

I am sorry that I have not been making myself clear; hopefully this will make it clearer.

This is what I mean when I said they were all marked to show.

Start
Control Panel
Customize
Customize Notifications
Given 3 choices
1. Hide when inactive
2. Always hide
3. Always Show

When I look to see what choice has been chosen it always indicates Always Show.

Most, if not all, of the programs have asked me if I wanted them to start with Windows and I have chosen yes or they have automatically done so on there own and have placed the program icon in the taskbar.

Today when I turn my computer on they were all there and that is what they always used to do. It has been just recently that they have not all appeared. Like I said it is aggravating but something I can live with. I am just not knowledgeable enough to try on my own what one other member suggested I might do.

Thank you

 

You might try setting the programs you want to always show as exceptions in the Windows firewall, that is, if you don't mind them being exceptions. I don't know if that will help but you could try it.

Start>Control Panel>Security Center>Manage security settings for: Windows Firewall>Exceptions tab>Add Program. Browse to program folder and select the .exe file for the program. Sometimes you have to also select the user interface, normally it's a file that ends in "gui.exe"

If you've installed any programs lately, that might be doing it. Uninstall any program you think might be the culprit and test if for awhile.

Before you uninstall anything, another option is to start with the program you most recently set to start with windows and change it to not start. Try it for awhile and see if it helps. If not, you might have to experiment stopping different programs until you hit on something that eliminates the problem. There might be a conflict.

There could be other reasons for the problem, but those are some things to try.

 

As I got it, the processes related to missing icons are running fine, it is an issue where the icons just don't show up in the tray. I could be wrong though.

I had this happened before, icons not showing in the tray, but I never got to the bottom of it iirc, I thought it was application specific.
jp, have you tried to reset the notification area cache? Perhaps it got corrupted...

EDIT:

Well, if you don't know if it'll help, why did you suggest it?
This could be a security risk and is a very bad advice IMO.

 

Actually I did allude to the fact it could be a security risk by saying, "that is, if you don't mind them being exceptions," but thank you Seer for making it more clear. I do think your idea is better to start with, but I wouldn't say with 100% certainty that it'll work either. There are so many things that could be causing this issue it's all just hit and miss.