Notification Area Icons - Reset

How to Reset the Notification Area Icons Cache in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8​

   Information

The notification area is a part of the taskbar that provides a temporary source for notifications and status. It can also be used to display icons for system and program features that are not on the desktop.

This will show you how reset the Notification Area Icons cache to fix any corrupted icons and remove any old icons of uninstalled programs from the Notification area Icons hide or show settings for your account in Windows 7/8 and Vista.

EXAMPLE: Windows 7 and Windows 8 "Notification Area Icons" Before and After Reset




EXAMPLE: Vista "Customize Notification Icons" Before and After Reset





Here's How:

1. Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below.

Reset_Notification_Area_Icons_Cache.bat

Download


​

   Note

This .bat (batch) file will confirm with you to kill the explorer.exe process, delete the registry keys IconStreams and PastIconsStream, restart the explorer.exe process, and confirm with you to restart the computer.

2. Save the .bat file to your desktop.

3. Double click/tap on the .bat file to run it, click/tap on Run (if prompted by UAC), and follow the onscreen instructions in the command prompt.
NOTE: If you like, you can stop getting the Run prompt by unblocking the .bat file.

4. This is what you will see if the registry keys IconStreams and PastIconsStream have already been deleted.

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5. This is what you will see if the registry keys IconStreams and PastIconsStream have not already been deleted.

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6. After the computer restarts, the IconStreams and PastIconsStream binary values in the registry will automatically be recreated the next time you make any change to the notification area icons in Windows 7/8 and Vista.


That's it,
Shawn Brink

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Hide or Show System Icons and Notifications in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Turn System Icons On or Off in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Enable or Disable Windows 7 Notification System Icons
• How to Add or Remove the Notification Area from the Taskbar in Windows 7
• How to Change the Action Center Message Settings in Windows 7
• How to Change How Long Windows 7 Notifications Stay Open
• How to Enable or Disable Windows 7 Balloon Notifications
• How to Create a "Notification Area Icons" Shortcut in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Customize the Notification Area Icons in Windows 7
• How to Change How Long a Notification Dialog Box Will Stay Open in Vista
• How to Hide or Show a Notification Icon in Vista
• How to Enable or Disable the Notification Area System Icons in Vista
• How to Show or Hide All Notification Area System Tray Icons in Vista
• How to Enable or Disable Changing "Notification Area Icons" Settings in Windows 7
• How to Reset and Clear All Pinned Items on the Taskbar in Windows 7
• How to Reset and Clear All Taskbar Toolbars in Vista and Windows 7
• Enable or Disable Automatic Promotion of Notification Area Icons to Taskbar in Windows 7 and 8

 

[Brink]

Ah,

It seems that you do need to still kill and restart explorer.exe with CCleaner as well. It does not finish resetting it unless it is done. I get this when I select that option.

 

[rsvr85]

Ah,

It seems that you do need to still kill and restart explorer.exe with CCleaner as well. It does not finish resetting it unless it is done. I get this when I select that option.

View attachment 47084

Odd, i don't get that warning :huh:
Thanks for letting me know anyways

 

[Brink]

No problem. I only got the warning when I selected the option the first time.

 

[rsvr85]

No problem. I only got the warning when I selected the option the first time.

I must have blindly clicked through that prompt not understanding that you had to restart explorer in the current session as opposed to just rebooting. I'll just stick to running the reg file, i'll only need to do it once every 6 months or so anyway i reckon.

 

[Flopo79]

aww CCleaner is awesome
i was going crazy trying to wipe out from that list the Ares icon
thanks to both of you

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Florencia, and welcome to Seven Forums.

 

[fleamour]

Shawn, I have a problem with above fix in that Windows Live Msgr will now not auto sign in when Windows starts.

I've repaired it reinstalled Msgr, no dice. I downloaded fix file, double clicked it, killed explorer & restarted. Hope this was correct?

Right!

Followed fix exactly this time & all is good & well again. Have to extract then merge. Msgr auto starts again!

 

[Brink]

Hello Fleamour, and welcome to Seven Forums.

I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted out.

 

[fleamour]

Well I say it's sorted but...

When rebooting/cold booting sometimes/randomly, one sytem tray icon will not show/auto start. Usually Win Live Msgr but jst now PC Tools ThreatFire. Both programs are set to load on boot in MSCONFIG. Bizarre but true! I think it's since I used that registry fix. Any ideas? As it's a random fault I'm thinking it'll be hard to pin down.

 

[Brink]

Fleamour,

Double check to make sure that you have notification icons set to Always show all icons on the taskbar to see all of them all of the time. You might also check in the program's settings as well to see if there is an option to display the "tray icon" or "notification icon" to have selected.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[fleamour]

Well it's not your reg fix. Restored via disk image to an earlier date & still have the same problem. Strange, covered all the obvious settings. If anything I have to manually start the required missing program. Totally random.

EDIT: Right I'm pretty sure it's when PC Tools ThreatFire is installed. Will post in their forum.

 

[Brink]

Ok. Please let us know how it turns out.

 

[fleamour]

"One of the things that ThreatFire could possibly to do cause this is alter a load-timer. This would cause things to delay in their loading until ThreatFire finished initializing, and since it never finished because of some wonky issue, deleting and reinstalling TF using the removal tool may have displaced this and allowed everything to continue as expected."

When installing, ThreatFire's driver stack should get executed & require a reboot. this means the program is loaded properly. This did not happen first time round so used the removal tool & reinstalled. All icons load correctly first time every time now.

 

[Brink]

That's great news Fleamour. Thank you for posting back with your results and solution.

 

[Moogly]

Thanks! I just did it too.. very easy - step to step follow the instuctions... great

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Moogly.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Shawn, what is the reg key? Could I manually change the values?

 

[Brink]

Hello Jonathan,

This is what is in the REG file download, but steps 6 to 10 must still be followed exactly for it to work.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify]
"PastIconsStream"=-
"IconStreams"=-

 

[si8mon]

Great Tutorial Brink. I don't understand why doesn't windows 7 automatically not display an icon from an uninstalled program in the customize window. I hope Microsoft release a patch for this in the next service pack.

 

[Brink]

Hello Simon,

It's mostly due to the program not properly uninstalling itself, but it would be nice to have Windows automatically verify or reset the icons on some sort of schedule though.