certain task bar icons suddenlly missing...

This morning when I turned on my computer, I saw that certain icons from the task bar (not those in the notification area) had vanished,. Most of these involve Microsoft or Winbdows (Explorer Resources, Microsoft Outlook, Windows Media Center, Windows Classic Media Player etc.) but the Skype icon had also disappeared.

So I did a system restore, and got the task bar back to how it was yesterday. Having read that Avast was often responsible for creating problems of this kind, and having been toying for some time with the idea of substituting Avast with a lighter anti-virus program, I uninstalled Avast and replaced it. Almost as soon as I had removed Avast via the Control Panel, I saw the same task bar icons just disappear before my eyes.

The programs involved are obviously still on my laptop, but I'd like to know why their icons disappeared, and how I can prevent this from happening again.

Florio

Florio said:

So I did a system restore, and got the task bar back to how it was yesterday. Having read that Avast was often responsible for creating problems of this kind, and having been toying for some time with the idea of substituting Avast with a lighter anti-virus program, I uninstalled Avast and replaced it. Almost as soon as I had removed Avast via the Control Panel, I saw the same task bar icons just disappear before my eyes.

Whenever you remove an AV program you should use the Removal utility/procedure for that AV.
If not, some remnants can remain causing problems.

Here is a tutorial by andrew129260 for removing Avast:
Avast - Uninstall Completely

Hi there,

Do you by any chance use any pc optimizer, such as tuneup utilities?

I also use avast, but have not faced any such problems.

I have a similar problem with my tuneup utilities removing shortcuts on the desktop, which i havent used for some time. I turned off live optimization and things ae fine now.

Hope I was of some help to you.

VISHWAS123