Is it possible to bring back systray icons without rebooting?

[poster]

Is this even possible? I'm using my computer to encode a video for my PSP so I don't want to reboot, but suddenly my taskbar disappeared, then came back and now I only have my internet connection, the speaker icon, and the clock in my 'Notification Area'. I'm running a few other programs (including PSPVideo9 which is 70% through a file), but they've disappeared. If I reboot I'll lose the video and have to start over. I've had this happen maybe 10 times in the last few years, it's not a lot, but I always wondered if I can re-run whatever died to bring back those icons. I don't think Explorer handles them, does it? Besides it's still running anyway.

Long story short; what controls what's displaying in the "system notification area"? Other than rebooting, can I re-run it to bring the stuff back that is still running but not actually displaying?

Thanks!

 

[bsobel]

There is a standard way for applications in the tray to detect explorer restarts and for them to register their icons. If your apps are dont this your basically stuck ( you can restart those apps, they are responsible for setting up their tracy icon ). However, it is abug in those apps so you may want to report it to the vendors.

 

[poster]

Well AVG, PSPVideo9 and my ATI icon all disappeared, I would have thought it was a problem with Windows not all three of them. My video finished so I've rebooted since, but that's a good idea, next time I'll try launching something that usually displays down there and see if it appears.

 

[Nothinman]

Well AVG, PSPVideo9 and my ATI icon all disappeared, I would have thought it was a problem with Windows not all three of them.

You think it's not possible for all 3 of them to not know how to handle the notification area icons properly? If explorer crashes and some of the icons come back and some don't, doesn't that point to the app and not explorer?

My video finished so I've rebooted since, but that's a good idea, next time I'll try launching something that usually displays down there and see if it appears.

All that'll tell you is if that specific app is smart enough to handle it's notification icon.

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: poster
Well AVG, PSPVideo9 and my ATI icon all disappeared, I would have thought it was a problem with Windows not all three of them. My video finished so I've rebooted since, but that's a good idea, next time I'll try launching something that usually displays down there and see if it appears.

Its definately a app bug. Now Explorer should not be crashing in the first place, so many vendors fail to test this case. But its the app that registers its icons with explorer, proivdes the menu, changes the icon, etc. The app is responsible for looking for a message explorer sends to all top level windows when it restarts, this message means 'Im back, please resetup your icons'. Many folks simply dont look for the message.

 

[poster]

Gotcha, thanks for the help. I don't remember the last time it happened, so it's not a big deal so I I was more curious than anything.