Windows 10: Safe Removal of USB devices not working

A while ago I paused updates on my computer. I found that many of them were more troublesome than their worth, not helpful, or just annoying. For instance, do we all remember when they got rid of the ability to change the screen brightness without having to go into settings? Now that settings screen is permanently open just for this one feature.


Well, the paused time ran out and I forgot to repause the updates, so several updates were installed. Ever since, I have lost the ability to safely uninstall USB devices. I tried to roll back to a previous version, and even though the updates were installed 5 days ago, the version is longer than 10 days, so I can't roll back to a previous version. I have uninstalled all of the updates I can on the windows update history screen in Settings, but that hasn't helped.


I next searched online for help, but the suggestions were either outdated or didn't apply as I didn't see the options/steps I was supposed to see.


Has anyone run into this problem before and if so how did you fix it? I would really like to safely remove USB devices again without having to shut down my computer each time I need to disconnect an external hard drive.

:)

 

USB Safe Remove Icon missing

Thankyou for your prompt reply. Carried the step by step instructions as far as Item 5. Interestingly the Safe remove icon was turned on. Toggled the on/off button and left it in the off position then rebooted with the intention to clear anything that
may have prevented the icon showing up. With bootup complete the Safe remove icon is now visible in the Hidden icon box and is active when tested.

After bootup proceeded as per instruction No 5 to see if Safe remove icon button is in the ON position. NEGATIVE. It is in the OFF position and seemingly works fine.

Hi you won't normally see the safely remove icon unless there is a usb device attached. Then it should show up so you can safely remove the device. If you dont see it click the up symbol on right hand side of taskbar to see if it is hiding in the tray. The
minute you insert a usb device it should be visible to you. If you have already done step 3 and step 4 that is all you should need to do to have it pop up automatically when usb device is present. It will disappear when the device is removed. Normal behavior
for you. Hope that clarifies.

 

USB Drives plugged in but No Safely Remove Icon in Tray, and

....no drives listed in Hardware List.

When I plug USB drives in, the Safely Remove Hardware icon does not appear in in system tray (its not hidden either)

First, I went to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Select which Icons Appear on the Taskbar...





.. and found it was already on

Next I tried using the solution in this post...

Solved No safely remove icon in tray any more after Windows 10 Anniversary up - Windows 10 Forums

...making a shortcut from "rundll32 shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll", but when I run the shortcut, there are no devices listed...





(in this screenshot, you can see two USB drives in the Explorer window in the BG but nothing listed in the panel. )

NOTE: They are listed in Disk Management and in the Device Manager under Disk Drives, and they function just fine..
I think the Safely Remove Hardware icon is not appearing because despite being detected and showing in Explorer, Device Manager and Disk Management, its not being listed in this panel for some reason.


NOTE2: I recently installed a new motherboard.

ASUS B150M-A
CPU Intel Core i5 - 6500 (3.2 GHz)
Mem 4096 MB (DDR4 - 2133)

I am 100% sure it was working before that, but I cannot say for sure if it was still working after that.
A friend suggested that it might be a setting in BIOS, but I have looked through it and nothing stands out.

Any suggestions would be welcome.


ETA: this is not the system listed in my System Specs page. That is another computer which I still have.

 

USB Safe Remove Icon missing

Thankyou for your prompt reply. Carried the step by step instructions as far as Item 5. Interestingly the Safe remove icon was turned on. Toggled the on/off button and left it in the off position then rebooted with the intention to clear anything that
may have prevented the icon showing up. With bootup complete the Safe remove icon is now visible in the Hidden icon box and is active when tested.

After bootup proceeded as per instruction No 5 to see if Safe remove icon button is in the ON position. NEGATIVE. It is in the OFF position and seemingly works fine.