Tim's Tech Tips

From anonymous user. This was a unique problem, with an interesting solution. It’s never the first thing you’d think!
Problem:

“The system tray will not show standard system icons for volume, network, and/or power. Standard troubleshooting has failed me! Please, Tim’s Tech Tips, help me! (64-bit Vista Home Premium, all updated completed.)”

Attempt #1:

Let’s try this first – Simply right-click on a blank area of the taskbar, and then click on Properties. Once there, look to the bottom of that window. Do you see the check-boxes for the icons you’re  missing?

Response:

“That was the first place I checked, but in that window, all of the check-boxes are grayed out (pic attached). I’ve checked audio settings and everything, in control panel… no luck! :-(“

Click "Read More" for the continuation

 Solution:

Ok, try this –
First, go to your start menu and type “regedit” [enter]
(or, in XP; click start, then run, then “regedit” [enter])

--BEFORE MAKING ANY CHANGES TO YOUR REGISTRY, TAKE A BACKUP--

Go to File->Export; then navigate to a good, and safe location for a backup where you won’t accidentally open that file in the future (C:\ is good) – and name it something like “OLD_REG.reg”. That is your backup.
Once you have a registry backup, click on HKEY__CURRENT_USER, then Software, then Classes, then Local Settings, then Software, then Microsoft, Windows, then Currentversion, then TrayNotify.
(Full path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify)
Finally, delete these two keys: IconStreams, and PastIconsStream

If you’re still unable to check the boxes for those icons (from the properties window I mentioned earlier), restart explorer.exe:

Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc)
Go to the Processes tab.
Right-click Explorer.exe and click “End Process” (or something that sounds like that)
In that same window, click on “New Task” (or hold the Windows Key and press R).
Type “Explorer.exe” and hit Enter.

An interesting fix to a unique problem. Hope you enjoyed the read!

Update on Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 12:10PM by Tim

Due to the number of times I've seen this issue, I have created a tool to address this and other causes of a user not being able to see certain icons in the system tray notification area. You can find this, and other tools on the Downloads page (link in the side-bar), or you can download the file directly from this link. Please make sure you right-click the link, and choose to save the file. If you're in Windows Vista, or 7, make sure that you run it as Administrator when you run it. 

As with all tools on Tim's Tech Tips, you use this at your own risk. It has been tested on Windows XP, Vista, and 7.