IDEA: Ever have your tray icons disappear randomly?

[superboyac]

Do any of you have some of your system tray icons disappear for no reason?  It happens all the time to me.  I thought it had something to do with the auto-hide feature of xp, but that didn't make sense since I have it disabled.  Instead, I use a tray management utility called PS Tray.  But I don't think that's causing it either.

Anyway, here a solution to the problem in this link (post #11):
Clearing System Tray History
Apparently, Windows keeps a history of any icons that appear in your tray, and if you clear it, then the problems go away.

IDEA
Can someone create a tiny utility that will clear the history upon shutdown or booting or something, so this problem goes away?  I know a lot of us use those 3rd party system tray utilities and disable the windows one, and they are fully capable of handling all of our system tray issues.  So, this utility would just let those programs do their job without meddling.

[lanux128]

try this AHK script: Clear SysTray History.

- clears the specified the reg key when shutting down.
- code for detecting shut-down based on haichen's script.

Code

;Clear SysTray History script
;Code for Shut-down query based on haichen's script
;Run before shutdown - http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26304 

#Persistent
#SingleInstance force
#NoTrayIcon
#NoEnv ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
DetectHiddenWindows On

DllCall("kernel32.dll\SetProcessShutdownParameters", UInt, 0x4FF, UInt, 0)
OnMessage(0x11, "WM_QUERYENDSESSION")
Return

WM_QUERYENDSESSION(wParam, lParam)
  {
  ;RegDelete, RootKey, SubKey [, ValueName]
  RegDelete, HKCU, Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\TrayNotify, IconStreams
  RegDelete, HKCU, Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\TrayNotify, PastIconsStream
  ExitApp
  }

[lanux128]

so superboyac, any luck with this script?

[superboyac]

Thanks lanux for that, but I think I may have done something bad to my computer.  I don't know if it was from your script or from what I was messing with before that, but every time I start up Windows now, I can't click on my taskbar.
What happens is that I click on my taskbar (left or right) but nothing happens.  I have to go to the task manager, kill the explorer.exe, and then restart it again for the taskbar to be clickable.
So, I don't know how to fix this, I think I broke my taskbar.  This is much worse that not seeing my icons.

[PhilB66]

Give Taskbar Repair Tool a try. Also, Nirsoft has a small utility, Explorestart, to kill all instances of Explorer and start a new one.

[nosh]

I was facing this issue even as I read the post. Started Process Explorer, killed explorer.exe and ran it again via Process Explorer's run command. The missing icon's back again - so I'd have to say something simple like Explorestart would do the trick. Off to download it, thanks for the tip PhilB66.

[lanux128]

Thanks lanux for that, but I think I may have done something bad to my computer.  I don't know if it was from your script or from what I was messing with before that, but every time I start up Windows now, I can't click on my taskbar.
What happens is that I click on my taskbar (left or right) but nothing happens.  I have to go to the task manager, kill the explorer.exe, and then restart it again for the taskbar to be clickable.
So, I don't know how to fix this, I think I broke my taskbar.  This is much worse that not seeing my icons.

sorry superboyac, i didn't realize that this could happen but the repair tool suggested by PhilB66 is worth a try. incidentally the author of that tool also has a VBS script for the same purpose: Remove Past Items.

[Target]

and on a sidenote - can anyone decipher these registry keys?

if someone can it would make it easy to maintain the tray icons consistently, ie I find some apps (notably AHK scripts) don't behave well in the tray, and don't remember their show/hide status between sessions

it's a minor gripe, but it irritates me that I have to reset this each morning when I log in

Target

[Curt]

Do any of you have some of your system tray icons disappear for no reason? 

If you have a lot of programs starting at the same time, it may be the major reason for some icons not showing up. When I installed a startup manager and gave each program plenty of time to launch all alone in piece, my problem with missing icons was solved.

I was facing this issue even as I read the post. Started Process Explorer, killed explorer.exe and ran it again via Process Explorer's run command. The missing icon's back again

It would have been sufficient to restart the missing icon's program
- at least it always has been, on my XP.

[Curt]

can anyone decipher these registry keys?

Not too sure what you mean by 'decipher', but:

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.........

Anyway, I have tried this and it didn't work for me, because, I guess, I had too many programs starting, and so  too many icons.

[Target]

had no problem understanding the instructions, I actually wondered if anyone could deciper/understand the actual key values

I suppose I'm looking for the opposite of what this 'fix' does.

FWIW, I exported the key and I got a reg file that was (from memory) > 3M.

Viewing the file in a variety of editors showed only a l o o o o o n g string of what I assume is hex (note that using a hex viewer didn't help me either - YMMV)

If someone can read this, it would be possible to create a key that sets your tray icons just so (as opposed to just clearing any/all references to show/hide status)

Target