System Icons - Enable or Disable

I too am having the same problem on my HP laptop - on Windows boot, my system icons (action center, power status, network status, and volume) are disabled and cannot be enabled using the normal UI (grayed out). I tried your suggestions - installing the registry keys and updating the group and system policies - but the problem has, if anything, gotten worse.

The problem seems to go away when I kill and restart Windows Explorer from Task Manager. However, the problem returns the next time I boot up. In the "RUN" dialog, there is a notice that the program will be started with administrative privileges. Is it possible that when the system boots, it launches Windows Explorer without elevated privileges? If so, how can I get Explorer to launch with full permissions?

Brink, I don't even remember when this problem started, and I've installed a bunch of software since. Most of these software packages have limited activation policies. How can I do a system restore without losing these installations?

EDIT: Never mind, I don't have a restore point from before November, which is around when this all started. It seems the only solution is to set EXPLORER.exe to launch with elevated privileges on boot. However, all the compatibility options are grayed out. How do I configure this?

Brink, you may be on to something here. I created a new administrator account, and the new account is unaffected by this problem.

I have spent about two hours trying to access my battery icon as it has been disabled for a couple of days now (possibly more, and I have absolutely no idea why!), I have done the following: downloaded the REG file; tried to access it from the administrative account; and use task manager to end the explorer.exe process and type in the systray.exe process. Nothing has worked!

It's really frustrating because if I haven't got my computer plugged in, I am unaware if it is lower than 10% battery so it will just cut out in the middle of the work I am doing.

PLEASE HELP!!!

How do I do this?