Windows 7: Taskbar - Notification Area Issue

Hello,

After waking up, as per usual, I turn on my computer. Let it boot up, and login to my user (who is administrator). After walking away, I sit down, and notice I have no icons in my notification area on my task bar. I proceed to restart my computer, thinking maybe my computer is loading rather slow - I was wrong.

I then began searching for help through Google and I found others with the same issue - most of which had been resolved. I decided to try each of these solutions, unfortunately, none of them seemed to work in any way. (If you're wondering, I tried Reset_Notifications_Icons_List.reg, Notification clear [program] and manually removing the 'explorer.exe' process and adding it again through the Task Manager).

Also, my pinned taskbar programs seem to be a lot large than they previously were. Which I'm not happy about.

Images below show changes in my task bar;

Before:


Now:


As you can tell in the picture now, I am also no longer able to change settings.

If anyone could give me a solution to this issue; much would be appreciated.

Thank-you in advance.

To change this right-click the Start Orb and go to properties, then click the Taskbar tab and change the "Taskbar buttons" option to you preferred setting (mine is Always combine/hide labels).

Taskbar Button Grouping - Enable or Disable

Hope this helps...

Thanks for that :) Only need the last thing to be fixed.

Any time.

Have you tried restarting Windows Explorer, and/or checked the settings for the notification area?

To restart Explorer type "TSKILL EXPLORER" in the Start/Search box and hit return.

To check the notification area settings, right-click a blank area of TaskBar, select Properties > Notification Area tab > Customize, and see if these are all blank? If so try hitting the "Restore default Icon Behavior" link there?

Have you run any third party cleanup software very recently?

Hello Fakeplasticspoo, and welcome to Seven Forums.

The tutorial below can help show you how to enable your system icons again from your second screenshot above.

System Icons - Enable or Disable

Hope this helps,
Shawn

The restart advice was pretty much the same thing as when I manually did it through the task manager.

When I click "Restore default Icon Behavior", it does nothing. It all continues to stay grey. Other than the clock.

I did run clean-up-software just yesterday; I installed it to my portable hard-drive and ran it. It wouldn't let me continue through the 'cleaning' process, as it wanted me to register. I decided not to do it, and uninstalled it - I also use Tune-up Utilities often, is this the same sort of software ?

tune up Utils, I have never trusted that program.
What other software dod you run that wanted you to register? I suspect that may be part or all of the problem.

Next time try Crap Cleaner (CCleaner).

Ending/restarting using the task manager is not the recommended way and does not always do the required job cleanly.

As I suspected it's likely the cleanup software has nuked your Tray notifications cache.
What do you see in the Tray settings? Try checking any of the items there and/or restoring the defaults again, and reboot (which I should of said earlier, sorry). And of course check out the tutorial above.

A tip for cleanup software is to use something well respected such as CCleaner, and be sure to check out what the implications of different setting are - CCleaner has detailed documentation on their site for this purpose...

Thank-you so much ! It worked perfectly. I changed a few other things that seemed to help out also.

I must say, excellent response time. Thank-you again.

You're most welcome. I'm glad that we were able to help. :)