taskbar icons 'gone but not gone'

[Bart-K]

Hi everyone,

My name is Bart, I'm from The Netherlands and I'm new on this forum.
I have this weird problem with the taskbar icon that I've been trying to solve for the last couple of days but just can't find the right solution. So I'm hoping someone here does.


Usually on the bottom right there's the network/internetconnection icon, right next to time and date. Then there's the sound volume icon. The netwerk icon is kind of there, but just not visually showing. Like there's someone's chair, but nobodys sitting on it.

The volume button is showing, but not working. It's lazy and doesnt want to come of its chair.
Been clicking on the thing, but nothing happens.

Then there're the hidden icons. If i click on the arrow, it shows to little window, in which there are some icons found like bluetooth and such. Usually. Just not this time. Now it shows a giant window, with a whole room of chair, but again, nobody sittin on it. Now another weird thing happens, if I move the mouse arrow arround in the window, every spot where there used to be an icon disappears, until the window has just 3 icon spots left. Still no icons showing, and not clickable.



I recently did a clean windows installation. But have had the same problem before the new clean instal.
It was good at first. Everything seemed fine and working like normal.

Anothing thing is, if I reboot, press F8 and boot the last known good configuration, it's be working again. Then after a little while (5 minutes or so) same problem.



I thought the systemsettings would have changed due to windows updates. But if I go to controlpanel, the settings are as they should be.

Due to this problem I can't savely disconnect any usb devices, which I find important.




Does anyone know how to solve this?

Cheers,
Bart

 

[jefboyardee]

Click that little upward facing arrow at the left end of your circle. Your apps might been sent up there. If so, you can drag them back to the taskbar, ot just click Customize.

And, if I may add, your use of English is infinitely better than my use of Dutch.

 

[Bart-K]

Hi Jefboyardee, thanks for replying.

The apps that used to show by clicking the upward facing arrow are al gone too.
Thats what I called the 'hidden icons'. Left or right click doens't do anything anywhere.

Could it be that me laptop isn't 100% compatible with windows updates, due to it's age?


It's an ASUS M51SN, a medium-high performance laptop back in it's haydays.
Used to run on vista but upgraded to windows 7-64bit.
Also upgraded ram from 3 to 4 gb and put in a Samsung 840 evo 250 gb SSD a couple years ago.

 

[jefboyardee]

Well, my PC is over ten years old, 1GB upped to 2, born with XP, now handles w7 and w10 on separate partitions. So in my case, its age definitely affects its speed, but can at least try to keep up.

Another trick, if you still have the installation DVD, is to load it while Windows is running and running the update button.