Cannot Turn System Icons On Or Off

Gemini Man · 01 Aug 2009

I can't customize which system icons show up on the taskbar. For some reason, I can only set the clock on or off. When I click the help file link that says "Why can't I change some of these settings?", it gives me some information about how an administrator may of changed group policies. I didn't change these settings, and I'm the administrator. Just noticed this issue as I installed the Windows 7 RTM Build x64 last night and this morning wanted to tweak which system icons showed up and which didn't. Any help would be appreciated.

(Screen attached of window with greyed out system icons.)
Attachment 20940

Brink · 01 Aug 2009

Hello Gemini Man,

Sometimes a simple restart will allow you to change them again. If not, then the tutorial below to see if that may help.

System Icons - Enable or Disable

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Dinesh · 01 Aug 2009

You can try this tutorial:
Notification Area Icons - Reset

Dwarf · 01 Aug 2009

You can also do this through Group Policy.

Click on the start orb and type gpedit.msc into the search box. When the program appears in the results panel, right click and select Run as administrator and provide administrative credentials.
Attachment 20958
Expand the category User Configuration and Administrative Templates. Click on Start Menu and Taskbar. The following screen appears. I have scrolled down, and you can see that the highlighted item is one of those you are having problems with. The others are immediately beneath it.
Attachment 20959
The setting of each of these options needs to be Not configured, so double click on each of these in turn to arrive at the following screen.
Attachment 20966
Make sure that Not configured is selected, as shown. Then click OK to return to the previous screen. Alternatively, click Next Setting to move to the next item. When you have adjusted the final setting, click OK twice to exit the adjustment screen and close the editor.

The other option that might be useful is Remove Clock from the system notification area.

Gemini Man · 01 Aug 2009

Thank you everyone for the help! Brink your method worked whereas the other two suggestions didn't. Of course I tried Brink's method last! I now notice that my options are still greyed out when I try to customize which icons show up on the taskbar... Which leads me to believe something is still funny with group policy settings. However, everything is back to showing up, so thanks again for all your help! As usual, seven forums never disappoints.

Brink · 02 Aug 2009

You're welcome Gemini Man. I'm happy to hear that you got those icons sorted out now.

Do you mean the Notification Area Icons options below are grayed out now? If so, check to make sure that the boxed in red option below is unchecked.