Thread: Fix “Not able to view and use Notification Area icons on the Taskbar” problem

How to fix Not able to view and use Notification Area icons on the Taskbar problem in Windows Vista?


Notification Area on the Taskbar:



Figure 1


The Notification Area on the Taskbar shows you the icons such as Volume, Network, Sidebar, Antivirus, Clock and so on. It may happen that you are unable to view theses icons and thus unable to use them.

You can view these icons in the following manner:

Try to Log off and then Log on to your system to see if the problem is due to some policy setting.

OR

Try to exit the Explorer and restart it.

OR

Try to set the Notification Area settings using the Taskbar and Start Menu properties window and see whether they are turned on or not. If not then Turn On the System icons

OR

If the above settings do not work and if the System icons are greyed under the Notification Area tab in the Taskbar and Start Menu properties window, follow the steps under the figure below:



Figure 2


1) Download the file notification_area.zip given at the bottom of this post under Attached files section.

Save it to a desired location

2) Open the notification_area.zip and double click the notification_area.reg file.



Figure 3


3) Click the Yes button to confirm



Figure 4


4) Click OK button when successful