Win Explorer crash resulting in missing tray icons

I seem to have a problem with windows explorer crashing on me at the most inoppurtune moments. (is there any other time? ) It's no problem to re-start the explorer, but usually what happens is my whole screen freezes for a moment, followed by a refresh that changes the whole task bar. Most (if not all) of the icons disappear from the tray, but the programs are still running. This is a problem when some of these programs can only be accessed through their tray icon! Also, the taskbar itself sometimes re-sizes, and my toolbars get re-arranged or occasionally disappear too.

I have only found 2 fixes for this. One is to prevent it from happening in the first place by setting each folder to launch in a separate process. The only thing wrong with that is it messes up my custom icons in some places using Stardock's IconPackager. I know, I know, it's just a cosmetic thing, but I LOVE my icons!

The second solution is to re-boot after it happens. NOT my favorite solution.

Is there any way to recover the taskbar & tray icons without re-booting?

I would appreciate any assistance. Thanks!

 

I think the best course of action would be to identify and remedy the cause of the crashes. Are you getting any error messages? What application(s) are you using when the crashes occur? Did you make any hardware/software changes immediately prior to the onset of this problem?

 

Ha! Just after I read your reply it did it again! grrrr.

I had just opened the "run" box and was just starting to type when it did it's thing. No error messages, no nothing. Just a temporary freeze of about 3-5 seconds, and then a screen refresh with most of my icons gone in the system tray. The only things left are:
Volume control
iTouch
GoBack
ZoneAlarm

All other icons are gone, but I think all the programs are still running. Pretty sure, anyway. What gives?

btw, I can't be certain, but I think this is the first time this has happened when Windows Explorer wasn't running, unless the run box is part of that? I dunno. Weird.

 

Try disabling GoBack and see whether the problem persists.

 

Okay, I'll try it. It may be a while before I post back with results, as this problem is intermittent.

Meanwhile, can anybody tell me anyway to restore the icons without re-booting? The programs are running, just no visible icons.

Thanks!

 

The way I get the taskbar icons back after a "screen crash" (which by the way seems to be a Windows favourite, it's been there in 98/W2K and XP!! Go to the task manager/processes and end the process whose taskbar icon is missing. Then go to File/New Task (Run...) and run the app. again and your icon should reappear.

 

It is definitely an annoying problem. The solution you mentioned, Paul, would be about as bad as rebooting. I generally lose 10-15 icons this way, so that's alot of programs to kill and re-start manually.

It hasn't happened since I shut down GoBack yesterday, but I'm not going to get excited yet. I have been working on some graphics and not using Explorer much so I'll reserve judgement until I finish my project. Actually, I hope that's not it, because GoBack has saved me a few times. I'll let you all know what happens.

 

Yes, with 10-15 taskbar icons it would be easier to reboot. As I only have a few taskbar icons it's not so bad, and I get to keep my dialup connection active. 25c calls can add up!