[Tech] Windows 7 Notification tray, losing icons.

[Traxata]

So, I've had a strange issue...


Firstly my PC decided that the Diskette in drive A (there isn't one) needed to be formatted to use it; Secondly the system clock claimed the time was 23:20, 15 January 2005...

So after going back to bios to find it had completely reset, I fixed that and went back into windows.

Upon booting up the time needed fixing after the bios fix; I was also missing Notification Tray icons and those icons functionality.

Incase anyone else has this issue... the only fix is via the Registry (without a reformat).

1. Back up the Registry by creating a restore point.
2. Go to Start > Run (or Windows-key + R), type in regedit and hit OK.
3. Navigate to the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cla sses\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Wi ndows\CurrentVersion \TrayNotify.
4. Delete the values IconStreams and PastIconsStream.
5. Open up the Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), go to the Processes tab, select explorer.exe and click End Process.
6. Open the Applications tab and click New Task at the bottom-right of the window.
7. In the message box that pops up type in explorer.exe and hit OK.
8. Explorer.exe will reload, and the missing icons should now be back in the system-tray where they belong.
9. Then if the volume bar isnt there, go to taskbar properties (where the volume was gray) and simply tick the box.

For people thinking EWWW REGISTRY I'm not touching that, fair enough; I have done this myself and it works with no adverse effects.

 

[SwampFae]

Great post, Trax