hope this is in the right forum category to be asking this!

I am using XP - it's a fairly new pc: HP Elite - quad core

Lately, my taskbar doesn't show the little icon for my wireless connection. It shows up sometimes but not all the time. Also same problem with application icons.

The thing is - is that I LIKE the little icon there because I can look at it real quick and see how strong my signal is. Sometimes the signal gets weak and all I have to do is move my tower about 1/2 inch in any direction to make it ok again. And when I start up it lets me know when it's ok to open browser.

I can't seem to figure out how to get it back in there... have tried many things - I've run anti-spy & virus programs, etc. I've checked the customized properties and changed the command from "hide when inactive" to "always show" that didnt' work. I've tried looking in Admin tools under components, management & services - got nothing and - I've tried:

System restore
the windows help menu
windows website
other tech sites
I've googled, and asked all over the net and CAN NOT find an answer to my problem. Anyone have a suggestion for me?

Are you sure this is a function of your laptop's taskbar? I've always seen the icon in the notification area (on my old XP PC, in addition to the vista I'm using now. So sorry if the differences are that great here).

Anyways have you tried right-clicking the taskbar, selecting "properties", then clicking on the "notification area" tab, then on the "customize" button under icons? I think that area will let you make the changes you need.

yes James (and thank you for responding) I've tried that one about 10-15 times. Even if I change it to "always show" and restart it will not show.

For the past 4 days it's been showing up again. Today it did not but I restarted and there it was!

It's a pc by the way not a laptop. And yeah it's a regular function on XP. It just started happening about 2 months ago. And like I said I've searched everywhere I can think of and cannot find an answer as to why it's doing this. Not even the Windows Help site can answer this.

Mine quit showing about the same time. Most likely one of the auto updates changed something.

ok but it's been working the last week. Almost right after I posted the help question here.... maybe all I needed was a little webmaster-talk luck! (if only it was that simple huh?)

I can't seem to figure out how to get it back in there... have tried many things - I've run anti-spy & virus programs, etc. I've checked the customized properties and changed the command from "hide when inactive" to "always show" that didnt' work. I've tried looking in Admin tools under components, management & services - got nothing and - I've tried:

Thanks so much for sharing the post.


pret auto

Just today it disappeared again..... I had it back for about 10 days then POOF! Gone again... it's so weird...this has never happened to me before. I've had XP in other pc's and never had this problem.... and I pretty much always go to the same sites.......guess I'm going to try one of those registry or pc cleaners. It's gotta be something I downloaded or something somehow that got put on my pc that is causing the intermittent interference..... just wish I could figure this out.
also a clarification of this problem; the exact location is the "notification area" in the taskbar - lower right part of desktop where running apps show, i.e. antivirus, adware, firewall, etc appear.

Does Anyone Here Know Anything About This Issue???

You know, I never really noticed mine was gone too. Found this on another forum:

START> Control Panel > Network Connections

Then on the left hand side click "MY NETWORK PLACES".

Then under the "NETWORK TASKS" heading click "SHOW ICONS FOR NETWORKED UPnP DEVICES".

Say YES on the box that appears.

Upon returning to the "NETWORK CONNECTIONS" screen, an icon called INTERNET CONNECTION should have appeared.

Right click the icon and go to PROPERTIES.

Tick that box that says "SHOW ICON IN NOTIFICATION AREA WHEN CONNECTED".

Now, on my XP install, I didn't have anything on the left in Network Connections that said 'my network places', but there is an 'internet connection' item on the left side. If this is the case for you, then

- Right-click on Internet Connection
- select properties
- On the General tab, at the bottom, there's a box that says 'show icon in the notification area when connected', check it if it isn't checked.
Icon should now be there.

Thanks LnR -

already did that too. Today I found something on MS Solutions. I finally tried searching for the words "notification area" on Microsoft & I found something.

It said that this is an issue with XP when you are using the Windows Classic Theme (which I am) AND a high contrast scheme in the Color Scheme box on the Appearance tab. (in the display properties) I checked my settings & they are high but they are correct settings.

It also said to work around this go to taskbar right-click a blank area of the taskbar, and then click Lock the Taskbar. Or, change the size of the taskbar, and then restore it,

when I saw that I thought it wouldn't work but I tried it anyway. I had the Lock the Taskbar already on so I unchecked it and then changed the height of taskbar, then changed it back, restarted pc and guess what? It worked! Lets see how long it will last this time...... if it disappears again then I will try the same thing.