Tray Management Utilities Mini-Review

[tomos]

Or edit some DLL file to make Windows not so stupid about this.

-Deozaan (May 20, 2015, 12:29 PM)

the most recommended (and most recent) solution is a little higher up on that page:
http://www.winhlp.co...nd_complete_solution
  I'm considering...

related comments

[Deozaan]

I'm considering...

related comments

-tomos (May 20, 2015, 02:46 PM)

It should be noted that that particular thread is for Windows XP. I'm not sure how/if it relates to Windows Vista/7/8/10, or if the patcher would work on anything newer than XP.

As for the patcher itself:


http://virusscan.jotti.org/en/scanresult/f7e7c18a2b76370d0d225ac78d246660b7516c20

[dr_andus]

Watching this with interest but a bit scared to try, given the above (false?) positives

[IainB]

I'd be wary about trying to blindly fix an apparent non-critical problem in the MS OS (Systray) by using a third-party "fixer" tool, and without first establishing the likely cause and examining the possible workarounds suggested by MS or in MS forums.
Probably best to err on the side of caution...

[IainB]

@Deozaan: I just edited and clarified my comment above.

[tomos]

In recent weeks my system tray has started acting up. It would stop displaying a whole lot of icons for software that are otherwise running. This is occurring randomly, i.e. after some rebooting or waking up the system tray either works properly or it doesn't.

-dr_andus (December 24, 2013, 05:36 AM)

I had that problem over the last couple of months with 7 x64 - seems to have stabilised now though FWIW. I did install a bunch of non-critical windows updates lately. Maybe one of them helped, but I really dont know.

-tomos (December 24, 2013, 07:34 AM)

having this problem again more often (it never went completely).
Does not seem to be related to Explorer - Windows Explorer has not crashed - not that I noticed anyways, and it's running normally as I write, with one icon blank in the tray, and about six others not showing at all.

-tomos (May 20, 2015, 07:41 AM)

I've noticed that if I leave Windows alone on startup, that all apps seem to show correctly.
I think what happens is that if I start using the machine before *everything* is loaded, then the tray display screws up.

Noticed that last week, I now leave the machine good time to start and have not had problems since, hopefully it will stay this way...

I dont use sleep or hibernate so cant comment on those situations.

[dr_andus]

I only seem to have problems with the systray when booting up. I've gotten into the habit of running the "Restart Explorer" utility below, and that sorts things out (though I suspect that a lot of icons are still not displayed, but at least the ones I care about are there, in the order I want them to).

Add Restart Explorer to Context Menu

-4wd (August 06, 2012, 10:44 PM)

[tomos]

Look at *my* tray ...




Possibly related:
I did a bunch of Windows (7) security updates yesterday.
Rebooted fine.
I restarted explorer.exe later (via Process Explorer), tbh, I cant remember why
Later, Windows would not close down - I had to force a reboot.
Today, the tray was fine initially and I havent been doing any funny business...

PS the popup with hidden icons shows as expected

[MilesAhead]

Look at *my* tray ...

[ Invalid Attachment ]


Possibly related:
I did a bunch of Windows (7) security updates yesterday.
Rebooted fine.
I restarted explorer.exe later (via Process Explorer), tbh, I cant remember why
Later, Windows would not close down - I had to force a reboot.
Today, the tray was fine initially and I havent been doing any funny business...

PS the popup with hidden icons shows as expected

-tomos (September 23, 2015, 09:01 AM)

Any time you run Windows Update, just about anything can happen.  That is why I disable it.  Of course on the Windows support forums that is an unpopular bit of advice since MS needs to push out the updates to plug the security holes etc..

Other than going through the updates one by one to see if one is bad all I can suggest is open the tray option popup thingie and first uncheck the box that says "show all icons and notifications."  Then set each individual one to show both icons and notifications.  Then check the box again to always show all icons and notifications.  As a last resort you can try flushing the notification cache.  CCleaner has an option to do it I believe.

If all else fails if your system is good with restore points and you have one from just before the updates, you could try going back to then.

[tomos]

Any time you run Windows Update, just about anything can happen.  That is why I disable it.  Of course on the Windows support forums that is an unpopular bit of advice since MS needs to push out the updates to plug the security holes etc..

Other than going through the updates one by one to see if one is bad all I can suggest is open the tray option popup thingie and first uncheck the box that says "show all icons and notifications."  Then set each individual one to show both icons and notifications.  Then check the box again to always show all icons and notifications.  As a last resort you can try flushing the notification cache.  CCleaner has an option to do it I believe.

If all else fails if your system is good with restore points and you have one from just before the updates, you could try going back to then.

-MilesAhead (September 23, 2015, 09:44 AM)

that sounds like faaar too much work
I'm going to be lazy, and see if a reboot fixes it ;-)

I remembered why I restarted explorer and it could be related -- to the hang on shutdown at any rate:
I have a dodgy bank of USB ports on top-front of the (desktop) case. On a couple of occasions have completely stopped working, and have been very buggy beforehand.

Will get back if it remains a problem -- hoping it was just a once off.

[MilesAhead]

I'm going to be lazy, and see if a reboot fixes it ;-)

-tomos (September 23, 2015, 01:20 PM)

That's always the first option.

[tomos]

I'm going to be lazy, and see if a reboot fixes it ;-)

-tomos (September 23, 2015, 01:20 PM)

That's always the first option.

-MilesAhead (September 23, 2015, 05:21 PM)

seems to be working again:
https://www.donation....msg389895#msg389895

[MilesAhead]

seems to be working again:
https://www.donation....msg389895#msg389895

 

[dr_andus]

Add Restart Explorer to Context Menu

-4wd (August 06, 2012, 10:44 PM)

So, I am in the middle of installing my tons of software onto my new Win7, 64-bit laptop, and it didn't take very long for Windows to stop displaying the tray icons correctly. Some of this might be because some of the programmes are ancient and are no longer updated. E.g. the WinSplit Revolution app is running, it is set as to be always shown in the tray, yet it is nowhere to be found.

On my old PC I just used 4wd's recommendation above and restarted Explorer with "Restart Explorer,"  which worked every time. My question is: am I running the risk of messing up my new laptop in the long run if I run "Restart Explorer" every time my laptop is rebooted?

I'd hate to mess it up with something trivial like this, on the other hand I'm annoyed that the Winsplit icon is not showing as it's supposed to (and many other icons, by the way).

[MilesAhead]

@dr_andus I would take a look at this tutorial:
http://www.sevenforu...rea-icons-reset.html

Also CCleaner has a cleaning option to delete the Windows notification cache but it does the same thing.

I have found no easy way to get all the icons to show.  I delete the cache, then uncheck the option to show all icons and notifications.  Then I set all remaining items in the list to show both icons and notifications.  Then I enable the check box "show all icons and notifications."  That seems to get it to act normally for a time.  But Windows will be gone before they fix the system tray.  There's no money to be made by fixing it.

[dr_andus]

Miles, thank you for that, will definitely give it a try. 

I also looked around a bit and it seems that restarting explorer.exe is not all that harmful in the end.

[MilesAhead]

Miles, thank you for that, will definitely give it a try. 

I also looked around a bit and it seems that restarting explorer.exe is not all that harmful in the end.

-dr_andus (September 28, 2015, 05:07 PM)

No.  It is just an annoyance.  You have to reload all the startup programs that start after login etc..
I set my Taskbar to triple height.  I have lots of room and so I let all the system tray icons show.  It ends up being simpler than trying to pick and choose.