How to recover lost/missing system tray icon?

My key location was slightly different (winxp sp3, full updates): HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\TrayNotify. ...but still worked. Thanks for the help.

Let me take your fix a little further. Your fix works, however the loss of the icons continues intermittently on subsequent bootups.

My fix:

1. Back up the Registry by creating a restore point.
2. Go to Start > Run (or Windows-key + R), type in regedit and hit OK.
3. Navigate to the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cla sses\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Wi ndows\CurrentVersion \TrayNotify.
4. Delete the values IconStreams and PastIconsStream.
5. Select the directory TrayNotify and rename it to OldTrayNotify.

Now Windows doesn't rebuild the values, IconStreams and PastIconsStream and
doesn't miss the directory. Your tray icons will appear each and every bootup
without failure.

Your wellcome....

U rock man!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Finally a fix which actually works! You are the best!!

Thanks so much! I have been looking for an answer for weeks!

Thanks Kristen. Very helpful. I didn't bother messing with the registry. I just restarted Explorer.exe as you instructed and it worked fine. Maybe when I reboot I'll have the problem again and will have to delete the registry items you suggest but for now it's fine. Thanks again..

No problem everyone! Glad to have helped.. & Good luck!

thanks for the help :D

Does deleting the values IconStreams and PastIconsStream affects how our laptops/computers work?

You are awesome. I LoveYou!!!

Thank you so so much!

The pathway you gave did not work, but I did a Ctrl+F search for traynotify and managed to locate the two values.

thanx very helpful I am glad there are people like you to help and thanx again

thank you kristenn....ur xo great...ur info is very useful!glad that ive read it!hope to meet intelligent people like you...thanx again!

Thanks too Kriten. Worked like a charm.

U Da 1!

Kristen, thank you, your solution worked like a charm. A+++

Thanks for the help in getting back the sound icon, greatly appreciated,
well done :)

Thank you so very much. Your step by step instructions worked like a charm for the frustrated lay person. I lost my icons and tried everything to get them restored after an update was done recently. I stumpled across this posting while searching for a solution online. I am a novice and I was able to do this fix based off these instructions. It worked for me - give it a try, it was easy. Thanks again !!!

it didnt work for me and I have vista so do u have another solution

It did work for me...Nice job...:-D

top Notch! thanks

Awesome, worked great! Thanks

Hi,
after "classes" in registry, I don't see any local settings!! What should I choose instead?

Thank you, sir! Worked perfect!

thanks...worked flawlessly

A+++

Thank you so much. great advice given!

greatttt

fantastic!!! =D

thank you very much that was great advice and it worked. THANK YOU!!!!!!

yeeeey, worked just fine, thank you soooo much

thanks a lot it works great for me :)

on my system the registry location was different, I just used the 'search' function with 'IconStream' as the argument. thnx . . . .

great worked for me

Thanks alot.. it does work..

Thx, i've been trying to solve this problem for a couple of days, and in 30 seconds it was solved

THANK YOU :o) I have been trying too fix this problem for a YEAR THANK YOU THANK YOU!

thanks budy

Thanks. That worked fine.
One note: I used FIND to locate the TrayNotify, but found that there are two such entries. I made sure that I had the one in
Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\TrayNotify
I found that I had no \Classes\Local Settings\ that is why I used FIND.
Also, Note that the address is slightly different: Explorer between CurrentVersion and TrayNotify.

Thank you!!! I have been trying to fix that all evening. It worked great. Really, thank you!

Excellent - worked great for me!

Thanks

Thanks for your expertise! It worked.

thanks :D

hello its work but when restart the computer lost again...icons....please help

worked for me to, thanks Kristin!

cool
it worked

thank you dude

you are the (wo)man!

Thanks a bunch bro it worked, at first I was confused reading the steps, but I double read em and I got it, thanks again :)

thanks, it worked

Awesome! Thanks!!! :D

Boss the guide works like a magic !!

Tyvm, great help, I didnt even need to go into regedit.

Sweet, solved it in a jiffy.. A hug and kiss to the person (if female! If male, a handshake and a pat on the back ah what the heck a hug too) who found this solution. Simple and Really Helpful. Thanks a heap!

Thank you very much. worked like a charm.

Worked for me too, huge thanks

You're awesome!

Worked here too, thanks

works like charm!
Thx!

really it worked....great....thank you so much

regards
tarun latwal

yes it worked..... bundle of thanks

Thanks

It worked, thanks a lot, man...You helped me...

Works great, though I don't why Windows 7 makes it so complicated getting back the volume icon!

Thank you Kristen!
Even eight years after, it is still very useful :-)

Thanks a lot, Kristen!

Thank you, Kristen. This tip is still useful in late 2017. I have used it on Windows 7 three or four times in the last few months.

This worked for me in 2018 on Windows 7! Thank you so much!

This works!!

This was the only solution that worked for me after reading through many forums!!! Thank You!