Windows 10: I have lost the icons on my desktop as well as the apps in my system tray.

I have lost the icons on my desktop as well as the apps in my system tray. Also when I open an app it goes to my task bar, comes up as a small window. To open it I have to right click on it and press move, then press one of the arrow key and it comes up. We did lose power for awhile and when I turned on the computer no icons! The "Show desktop icons" is checked. I am not running multiple screens and am not in Tablet Mode.

:)

 

Notification area (system tray) icons missing, Reset did not work

Hi Kevin,

With regard to your query about the system tray, we suggest that you follow the steps below and see if it helps.

• Right-click on an empty space in your desktop taskbar and select Properties.
• In the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties window, find the selection labeled
  Notification Area and click on Customize.
• Click on Turn system icons on or off.
• If you'd like to always show all icons, turn the slider window to On.
• Reboot the PC for the changes to take effect.

Let us know the result.

 

Disappearing System Tray icon

I have a situation where my Macrium Reflect "backup-in-progress" icon stops being displayed. I've reported this to Macrium, but I'd like to better understand what is going on ... including how System Tray (a.k.a. notification area) icons are displayed.

I'm running Win 10 2004 and (if it matters) Macrium Reflect Home 7.3.5289.

This problem regularly occurs on only 1 of my 4 computers, and appears to be associated with Remote Desktop access and/or disconnected mode.

On "attended" computers (i.e., not using RDP access) the backup icon is always displayed, either in the System Tray or in the list of hidden icons, when MR runs a backup. But access via RDP seems to mess this up. I can reproduce the problem on any (well, at least 2) of my computers by the following scheme:

1. Start with the computer in a "Locked" state.
2. Connect to the computer using Remote Desktop.
3. Manually start a scheduled backup. The icon appears in System Tray.
4. Disconnect the Remote Desktop connection. This puts the computer in a Locked state but the backup runs to completion.
5. Wait for the computer to enter Sleep state.
6. Wake the computer with "Wake on Lan" processing and connect with Remote Desktop again.
7. Manually start another backup. This time the icon is not displayed.
8. Disconnect Remote Desktop and log in locally.
9. Start another backup. The icon is still not displayed.
10. Reboot and start another backup. The icon is displayed.

I know nothing about the Windows notification processing so this my be a really dumb question, but is there something trying to display a Systems Tray icon while Windows is running disconnected that would make Windows flag the icon as unusable? I know that can't be universal since I have most of my System Tray icons seem bothered by this.

 

Uninstalled program, but system tray icon is still there...

@Steve C - that would be valid if it were only the tray icon, but the first post mentioned

- hence my suggestion.