Task bar icon not showing, not in "Control Panel > Notification Area Icons" either

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We use a program which runs in the notification area, its icon sitting there for as long as it runs, a bit like Dropbox does:

enter image description here

PROBLEM: On thousands on computer it shows fine, but on two particular computers, it does not appear anymore.

It used to work on these two computers too. It still displays correctly on thousands of other computers. The only unusual thing that the two computers seem to have in common is that an app called "FreeFileSync" is installed.

The icon is not listed at "Control Panel > Notification Area Icons" either. The program is running correctly, as attested by the Windows Task Manager and the program's log file. Reinstalling does not help. The computer is configured to always show all icons:

enter image description here

QUESTION: How to fix this and have the icon appear like before?

EnableAutoTray TrayNotify

Nicolas Raoul

Posted 2015-10-23T09:05:56.510

Reputation: 7 766

Have you tried a restart? – DavidPostill – 2015-10-23T14:59:27.140

1Can you share the name of the program? Maybe there's a hidden setting that enables or disables the system tray icon. – LevenTech – 2015-10-27T05:49:55.460

@LevenTech: The software is called "CmisSync", I am 100% sure it has no such setting. – Nicolas Raoul – 2015-10-27T05:55:21.777

Even if there's no setting, there could be a bug. Cmissync seems to have an issues list on Github (https://github.com/aegif/CmisSync/issues/). Browsing through them, I saw several related to missing tray icons (no Windows unfortunately).

– LevenTech – 2015-10-27T06:18:51.213

@LevenTech: Icons on Linux have their own share of problems, but in the present case on Windows, the icon has always showed on thousands of computers and it is the first time I ever see the problem. – Nicolas Raoul – 2015-10-27T06:25:03.683

@DavidPostill: yes, even after a restart. – Nicolas Raoul – 2015-10-27T12:07:36.357

Tried booting into Safe mode? – Manubhargav – 2015-11-02T02:07:50.153

@Manubhargav: Tried, that does not work better in Safe mode unfortunately. – Nicolas Raoul – 2015-11-02T15:13:14.160

Answers

-1

Two ideas :

Try in the registry of that computer to set in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer the value of the DWORD EnableAutoTray to zero. This has the same effect as setting "Always show all taskbar icons and notifications".

If you have another computer with an identical setup, try to transplant the registry key in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify (export and keep the old value). You can also alternatively try to delete the values Icon Streams and Past Icons Stream and let Windows regenerate them.

If nothing helps, you could always uninstall that product and reinstall, rebooting between these steps and running a registry cleaner such as CCleaner.

harrymc

Posted 2015-10-23T09:05:56.510

Reputation: 306 093

I added two screenshots showing the state of the registry (I did not modify anything yet). As you can see, EnableAutoTray is already at 0. I will try to remove Icon Streans and Past Icons Stream. – Nicolas Raoul – 2015-10-27T01:04:01.843

Unfortunately, emptying the values of Icon Streams and Past Icons Stream then rebooting did not do the trick either :-/ We are very hesitant to run a utility such as CCleaner because the machine is in a very controlled environment where every action has to be documented and justified, running such an utility has a risk of making things worse. What parts of the registry would make sense to "clean"? Thanks! – Nicolas Raoul – 2015-10-27T11:47:16.740

CCleaner will not fix issues without authorization, but it might point to something and you can then check the issue (a knowledgeable person is required). CCleaner can also clear your Tray Notifications Cache for you. You need to reboot or restart Explorer after deletion, and for good measures better delete all items under the TrayNotify key (which I hope you exported first). – harrymc – 2015-10-27T12:30:10.447

Could the knowledgeable downvoter share his wisdom with me? – harrymc – 2015-11-01T18:46:49.377

I am not the downvoter, and actually I will give you the bounty soon since no other answer seems to come up. – Nicolas Raoul – 2015-11-02T02:09:09.530

Was the problem solved? – harrymc – 2015-11-02T06:59:27.380

Unfortunately not yet. – Nicolas Raoul – 2015-11-02T08:18:21.530

This should have worked. There must be a local problem related to the product and computer in question. If the product has an installer, try uninstalling with for example Revo Uninstaller Freeware, then reinstalling. Before reinstalling, you could also search the registry and disk for any remaining traces. There might also be a conflict with some other product (usually a security suite).

– harrymc – 2015-11-02T08:49:35.717

Asked: 2015-10-23T09:05:56.510

Viewed: 626 times

Active: 2015-10-29T14:50:48.633