Solved disappearing icons (notification area)

[timeless]

its just started happening.. twice so far,everything in the notification area (icons/show desktop) disappears.. l can get them back by going control panel then editing the notification area settings and clicking show all then unchecking to only show the ones l want shown.

however l noticed they disappeared maybe 5mins after, no idea why as l havent changed any of the settings at all, going to reboot see if it happens later but lm kinda confused as to why the clock and the notification area icons are just disappearing randomly.

 

[Brink]

Hello timeless,

If this happens again, you might see if resetting the notification area may help if corruption is at fault.

Notification Area Icons - Reset

 

[timeless]

its not that, however l just noticed something.. they disappear when l run media player.

 

[timeless]

the cause of the issue is definitely media player, which l must admit l edited settings of. going to try and reverse them but it doesnt make sense, all l change were options pertaining to getting information from the internet.

 

[timeless]

sorry for the triple post, but thought l would add an image to clarify the icons l meant, and also add further information and steps lve taken.

firstly lm pretty sure the issue thats causing my notification area, clock and show desktop has something to do with media player now, every time l opened any video file.

secondly after realising this l remembered l changed some settings a few days ago, all these settings were made within Windows Media Player options, the options l changed were unticking of all tick boxes within the Enhanced Playback and Device Experience. and also unticking history and other tick boxes. it seems if l do anything to any of those options l loose the icons in my notification area along with the clock etc, l can get it back by editing the notification settings then ticking and unticking the show all icons.

to resolve the issue l reset WMP with the troubleshooter, then additionally visited programs and features then turned off WMP as a windows feature, rebooted then turned the feature back on.. however if l change any of the privacy settings again the problem reoccurs and l have to reset WMP, disable the feature then re-enable it again, if l change any setting on WMP privacy options l loose my notifications area, clock..

so... l guess if l cant change my privacy settings to something l feel is acceptable, can someone please recommend a player l could use in place of it? with a similar setup but lightweight with pretty much the same features? granted l use MPC-HC but l usually have video files queued up and l dont want to mess up its play list, so l mostly use WMP for browsing single files or just queuing music from my library (lm not looking for a player like winamp).

 

[Callender]

You might be interested in this thread:

Best Win Media Player alternative?

I keep WMP disabled but when I was using it I used this to disable some settings:

xpy Portable | PortableApps.com - Portable software for USB, portable and cloud drives

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However I'd suggest that nobody should use it without a system image backup in place or at least a system restore point.

 

[timeless]

thanks for the links, l decided to try out potplayer and disabled WMP, so far my annoyance hasnt happened again.. l dont see much in the way of privacy settings, and the only downside is l have to save playlists and opening them specifically from what lve seen but l guess l can live with a minor annoyance rather than the larger one of where l loose my notifications area every time l change my privacy settings.

now all l need to worry about is acquiring some PS4 games, finally acquired a console and a PS+ membership but l couldnt sell my old laptop because of a webcam issue, otherwise l would have been able to get some games LOL.

 

[Callender]

If you want to open a playlist directly without first launching PotPlayer navigate to:

C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\PotPlayerMini64\Playlist

Click a playlist to launch. To move back/ forward between videos press pgup or pgdn

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I prefer opening and closing the playlist flyout pane. Just press F6 to toggle.

 

[Callender]

RE: Privacy settings. It doesn't need them. It doesn't connect to send usage statistics or anything else when you play a video. I have software that alerts me to outbound connections and PotPlayer doesn't make any unless you tell it to open an online stream.

 

[timeless]

l guess its just a matter of me getting used to it.. its a pretty different look compared to what lve been used to for a while.

 

[Callender]

Sorry. That last comment is incorrect. I don't see traffic because I had blocked it.

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[Callender]

You can change how it looks. Not sure what you need. You can auto-resize videos or set it to remember last window position used. Also you can use borderless window playback.

 

[timeless]

l'll work things out as l go along.. its mostly how l learn to use new stuff.. that and a little help from google, or in the case of issues like these l come here ^_^

 

[lehnerus2000]

VLC

You could also try VLC.
VideoLAN - Official page for VLC media player, the Open Source video framework!

I have K-Lite Codec Pack (including MPC-HC) and VLC installed in W7 (and XP).

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[timeless]

l was apprehensive about trying VLC, l noticed on a friends machine all his video icons were traffic cones, not sure if it would change for me but l like my thumbnails, plus l remember hearing something about codecs getting messed up or something when VLC was installed. but so far Potplayer has done what ld usually do with WMP, however l'll see if it starts to grow on me more.

by the way, like your sig lehnerus2000, was a pretty good anime... watched it years ago ^_^

 

[lehnerus2000]

l was apprehensive about trying VLC, l noticed on a friends machine all his video icons were traffic cones, not sure if it would change for me but l like my thumbnails, plus l remember hearing something about codecs getting messed up or something when VLC was installed.

That should only occur if you set VLC as the default video player.

I have MPC-HC (set as the default) and VLC installed and I see thumbnails with the MPC-HC symbols.

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by the way, like your sig lehnerus2000, was a pretty good anime... watched it years ago ^_^

As with many manga-to-anime conversions, the manga was (IMO) better and longer.

The anime caught up to the manga and so the producers had to improvise an ending.
As you may have guessed, Helen was my favourite Claymore.

 

[timeless]

with regards to default player l like to have a different player as default because then l can open it up without messing my current playlist up

in regards to anime, its been so long l could rewatch again tho l have a good list to get through before then.

 

[Callender]

RE: Playlists in PotPlayer. If you move, rename, add or delete videos in a monitored directory the playlist is automatically updated with the changes.

RE: Thumbnails in explorer. I use this:

BabelSoft / 博语软件

 

[timeless]

thats useful to know.