why don't system tray icons display?

Sometimes, when I start my Dell laptop, one or two icons in my systems
tray don't display. Examples: I use a Contour Mouse, and its icon should
be there--but sometimes isn't. Or the icon showing the level of charge
isn't there. If I restart, they'll show up.

Any thoughts on why this is happening--and if there's anything I can do
about it?

--
Thank you,
Jo-Anne

In message , Jo-Anne
writes:
Sometimes, when I start my Dell laptop, one or two icons in my systems
tray don't display. Examples: I use a Contour Mouse, and its icon
should be there--but sometimes isn't. Or the icon showing the level of
charge isn't there. If I restart, they'll show up.

Any thoughts on why this is happening--and if there's anything I can do
about it?

This may or may not help:

Right-click an empty part of the taskbar.
From the popup that appears, select Properties.
In the window that appears, select the Taskbar tab, if it isn't already
selected.
In the Notification area (that's what "system tray" was called the week
they designed W7), click Customize... .
Play with that window as you will. Personally, I have "Always show all
icons and notifications on the taskbar" ticked, but then I have a
double-height taskbar and don't mind the two rows of 13 icons I have;
YMMV.

Sorry if you knew about the above window.

There also used to be in XP, an option for the tray to collapse in on
itself, only showing about three icons, but with a vertical bar or
symbol or something you could click on to see the rest - I always turned
that off as I wanted to see all my tray icons anyway; at the moment, I
can't see if 7 has something similar.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"The great tragedy of science, the slaying of a beautiful theory by an ugly
fact. - Thomas Henry Huxley

On Sat, 24 Feb 2018 18:29:17 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:


In the Notification area (that's what "system tray" was called the week
they designed W7),



It was always called "Notification area." "System tray" was (and still
is) just an informal name for it.

In message , Ken Blake
writes:
On Sat, 24 Feb 2018 18:29:17 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:


In the Notification area (that's what "system tray" was called the week
they designed W7),



It was always called "Notification area." "System tray" was (and still
is) just an informal name for it.

Strange; I don't know where I first encountered "system tray", but it's
certainly not a phrase I'd have used if I hadn't seen others using it.
(Not sure what I _would_ have used, mind.) Do you know where it came
from?
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Today, I dare say more people know who starred as /The Vicar of Dibley/ than
know the name of the vicar of their local parish. - Clive Anderson, Radio
Times 15-21 January 2011.

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Ken Blake
writes:
On Sat, 24 Feb 2018 18:29:17 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:


In the Notification area (that's what "system tray" was called the week
they designed W7),



It was always called "Notification area." "System tray" was (and still
is) just an informal name for it.

Strange; I don't know where I first encountered "system tray", but it's
certainly not a phrase I'd have used if I hadn't seen others using it.
(Not sure what I _would_ have used, mind.) Do you know where it came from?

Type "systray" into the Orb search.

Ed

On Sat, 24 Feb 2018 19:10:23 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

In message , Ken Blake
writes:
On Sat, 24 Feb 2018 18:29:17 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:


In the Notification area (that's what "system tray" was called the week
they designed W7),



It was always called "Notification area." "System tray" was (and still
is) just an informal name for it.

Strange; I don't know where I first encountered "system tray", but it's
certainly not a phrase I'd have used if I hadn't seen others using it.


Almost everyone used it. It was rare that anyone knew the official
name. I used it, even though I also knew the official name.


(Not sure what I _would_ have used, mind.) Do you know where it came
from?



Sorry, no I don't. But I can hazard a guess--from some Microsoft
employee.

On Sat, 24 Feb 2018 19:56:25 +0000, Ed Cryer
wrote:

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Ken Blake
writes:
On Sat, 24 Feb 2018 18:29:17 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:


In the Notification area (that's what "system tray" was called the week
they designed W7),



It was always called "Notification area." "System tray" was (and still
is) just an informal name for it.

Strange; I don't know where I first encountered "system tray", but it's
certainly not a phrase I'd have used if I hadn't seen others using it.
(Not sure what I _would_ have used, mind.) Do you know where it came from?

Type "systray" into the Orb search.



Thanks, I just did. I couldn't find out where it definitely came from,
but I found this 2003 page
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/old...10-00/?p=42583

which confirms what I said, quoted above.

It also says "I think the reason people started calling it the "system
tray" is that on Win95 there was a program called "systray.exe" that
displayed some icons in the notification area." That's not necessarily
correct, but it sounds likely and it might be.

On Sat, 24 Feb 2018 11:47:18 -0600, Jo-Anne wrote:

Sometimes, when I start my Dell laptop, one or two icons in my systems
tray don't display. Examples: I use a Contour Mouse, and its icon should
be there--but sometimes isn't. Or the icon showing the level of charge
isn't there. If I restart, they'll show up.

Any thoughts on why this is happening--and if there's anything I can do
about it?

I had the same problem. Now, it was a while ago but, as I recall, it was due
to a .dll starting a bit late and that was caused by slow booting.
This seems to be borne out by the fact that all of the icons have always
been there since I installed an SSD.
I know of no other 'fix'.
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

On 2/24/2018 12:29 PM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Jo-Anne
writes:
Sometimes, when I start my Dell laptop, one or two icons in my systems
tray don't display. Examples: I use a Contour Mouse, and its icon
should be there--but sometimes isn't. Or the icon showing the level of
charge isn't there. If I restart, they'll show up.

Any thoughts on why this is happening--and if there's anything I can
do about it?

This may or may not help:

Right-click an empty part of the taskbar.
From the popup that appears, select Properties.
In the window that appears, select the Taskbar tab, if it isn't already
selected.
In the Notification area (that's what "system tray" was called the week
they designed W7), click Customize... .
Play with that window as you will. Personally, I have "Always show all
icons and notifications on the taskbar" ticked, but then I have a
double-height taskbar and don't mind the two rows of 13 icons I have; YMMV.

Sorry if you knew about the above window.

There also used to be in XP, an option for the tray to collapse in on
itself, only showing about three icons, but with a vertical bar or
symbol or something you could click on to see the rest - I always turned
that off as I wanted to see all my tray icons anyway; at the moment, I
can't see if 7 has something similar.


Thank you, John. I customized that area first thing when I set up the
computer. Interestingly, when the icons disappear, they're not in
"hidden icons" either.

--
Jo-Anne

On 2/24/2018 4:03 PM, PeterC wrote:
On Sat, 24 Feb 2018 11:47:18 -0600, Jo-Anne wrote:

Sometimes, when I start my Dell laptop, one or two icons in my systems
tray don't display. Examples: I use a Contour Mouse, and its icon should
be there--but sometimes isn't. Or the icon showing the level of charge
isn't there. If I restart, they'll show up.

Any thoughts on why this is happening--and if there's anything I can do
about it?

I had the same problem. Now, it was a while ago but, as I recall, it was due
to a .dll starting a bit late and that was caused by slow booting.
This seems to be borne out by the fact that all of the icons have always
been there since I installed an SSD.
I know of no other 'fix'.



Thank you, Peter. Your explanation sounds reasonable. I guess it's
something I'll just have to put up with.

--
Jo-Anne

On Sun, 25 Feb 2018 02:28:29 -0600, Jo-Anne wrote:

On 2/24/2018 4:03 PM, PeterC wrote:
On Sat, 24 Feb 2018 11:47:18 -0600, Jo-Anne wrote:

Sometimes, when I start my Dell laptop, one or two icons in my systems
tray don't display. Examples: I use a Contour Mouse, and its icon should
be there--but sometimes isn't. Or the icon showing the level of charge
isn't there. If I restart, they'll show up.

Any thoughts on why this is happening--and if there's anything I can do
about it?

I had the same problem. Now, it was a while ago but, as I recall, it was due
to a .dll starting a bit late and that was caused by slow booting.
This seems to be borne out by the fact that all of the icons have always
been there since I installed an SSD.
I know of no other 'fix'.


Thank you, Peter. Your explanation sounds reasonable. I guess it's
something I'll just have to put up with.

Just unforgotten something: I tried delaying the starting of some utilities
that aren't 'essential', staggering them over a couple of minutes. IIRC, the
delay isn't obvious as the 'time of start' might be related to boot for some
and loading of other items for others, so it's trial and error.
I think that I used Malwarebytes Antimalware Free for the purpose. It wasn't
totally successful but certainly helped.
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

On 24/02/2018 22:03, PeterC wrote:

On Sat, 24 Feb 2018 11:47:18 -0600, Jo-Anne wrote:

Sometimes, when I start my Dell laptop, one or two icons in my systems
tray don't display. Examples: I use a Contour Mouse, and its icon should
be there--but sometimes isn't. Or the icon showing the level of charge
isn't there. If I restart, they'll show up.
Any thoughts on why this is happening--and if there's anything I can do
about it?

Which Operating System? I ask although you are posting to a Windows 7
group, because XP had quite a well known problem of this type, and we do
get XP users posting here because the XP ngs are virtually dead. The
icon usually affected was Task Manager when minimised to its CPU-Load
icon in the System Tray. On my XP machines, I tackle this problem by
running a script at boot, shutdown, logon, & logoff, to clear the
affected registry keys. That covers all situations except crashing of
the instance of explorer.exe that is running the Desktop, and manually
restarting it, ironically enough, via Task Manager. On my machines, you
can guarantee that the Task Manager CPU-Load icon will not be visible
after that.

I had the same problem. Now, it was a while ago but, as I recall, it was due
to a .dll starting a bit late and that was caused by slow booting.
This seems to be borne out by the fact that all of the icons have always
been there since I installed an SSD.
I know of no other 'fix'.

See above?

On Sun, 25 Feb 2018 13:07:17 +0000, Java Jive wrote:

On 24/02/2018 22:03, PeterC wrote:

On Sat, 24 Feb 2018 11:47:18 -0600, Jo-Anne wrote:

Sometimes, when I start my Dell laptop, one or two icons in my systems
tray don't display. Examples: I use a Contour Mouse, and its icon should
be there--but sometimes isn't. Or the icon showing the level of charge
isn't there. If I restart, they'll show up.
Any thoughts on why this is happening--and if there's anything I can do
about it?

Which Operating System? I ask although you are posting to a Windows 7
group, because XP had quite a well known problem of this type, and we do
get XP users posting here because the XP ngs are virtually dead. The
icon usually affected was Task Manager when minimised to its CPU-Load
icon in the System Tray. On my XP machines, I tackle this problem by
running a script at boot, shutdown, logon, & logoff, to clear the
affected registry keys. That covers all situations except crashing of
the instance of explorer.exe that is running the Desktop, and manually
restarting it, ironically enough, via Task Manager. On my machines, you
can guarantee that the Task Manager CPU-Load icon will not be visible
after that.

I had the same problem. Now, it was a while ago but, as I recall, it was due
to a .dll starting a bit late and that was caused by slow booting.
This seems to be borne out by the fact that all of the icons have always
been there since I installed an SSD.
I know of no other 'fix'.

See above?

I never had this until going XP--W7. The W7 PC is a lot faster than the old
XP one.
One challenge was to get a decent Quick-launch Bar and make the icons stay
there initially; seems OK now.
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

On 2/25/2018 3:50 AM, PeterC wrote:
On Sun, 25 Feb 2018 02:28:29 -0600, Jo-Anne wrote:

On 2/24/2018 4:03 PM, PeterC wrote:
On Sat, 24 Feb 2018 11:47:18 -0600, Jo-Anne wrote:

Sometimes, when I start my Dell laptop, one or two icons in my systems
tray don't display. Examples: I use a Contour Mouse, and its icon should
be there--but sometimes isn't. Or the icon showing the level of charge
isn't there. If I restart, they'll show up.

Any thoughts on why this is happening--and if there's anything I can do
about it?

I had the same problem. Now, it was a while ago but, as I recall, it was due
to a .dll starting a bit late and that was caused by slow booting.
This seems to be borne out by the fact that all of the icons have always
been there since I installed an SSD.
I know of no other 'fix'.


Thank you, Peter. Your explanation sounds reasonable. I guess it's
something I'll just have to put up with.

Just unforgotten something: I tried delaying the starting of some utilities
that aren't 'essential', staggering them over a couple of minutes. IIRC, the
delay isn't obvious as the 'time of start' might be related to boot for some
and loading of other items for others, so it's trial and error.
I think that I used Malwarebytes Antimalware Free for the purpose. It wasn't
totally successful but certainly helped.


Thank you again. I gave up on Malwarebytes recently when it "upgraded"
me to trialware that caused everything to lock up periodically,
requiring a manual restart. I'll check what things are starting when I
boot up...

--
Jo-Anne

On 2/24/2018 12:03 PM, Ken Blake wrote:
On Sat, 24 Feb 2018 19:10:23 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

In , Ken Blake
writes:
On Sat, 24 Feb 2018 18:29:17 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:


In the Notification area (that's what "system tray" was called the week
they designed W7),



It was always called "Notification area." "System tray" was (and still
is) just an informal name for it.

Strange; I don't know where I first encountered "system tray", but it's
certainly not a phrase I'd have used if I hadn't seen others using it.
..

"System tray", to me, would be the CD tray.
--
Ed Mc