Volume and Network icons missing on

QUESTION: I opened my computer today and both my volume and network icons are missing off of my taskbar. When I click the "properties" option on my taskbar the options to place volume and network icons on the taskbar are greyed out. I'm on Windows Vista.

Do you have an explanation for this?

ANSWER: If you didn't do anything to cause it the last time you were on your PC, then I have no explanation because it's one of those things that shouldn't happen but does, i.e., a bug. But you can try the below with my usual caveat...proceed at your own risk. I accept no responsibility for the outcome since I'm not doing it myself.

Right click on taskbar, select Properties and click the tab Notification Area. Under System Icons, make sure the Volume and Network boxes are checked. If they are grayed out, then I would restore using (Note...if they are not grayed out, you can run through this anyway and see if it makes a difference. Sometimes, especially with Vista, things will appear to be set correctly, but aren't):

Click Start > Run > and type gpedit.msc. The Local Group Policy Editor window will appear.

[If you don't have Run on the Start menu, Click Start button, click All Programs, click Accessories and then click Run.]

Double click User Configuration, double click Administrative Templates, click on Start Menu And Taskbar.

Scroll down on the right pane and find Remove the networking icon. Double click on this item, and it should show Disabled. Select Disabled and click OK.

Scroll down almost towards the bottom of the list and find Remove the volume control icon. Double click on this item, and it should show Disabled. Select Disabled and click OK.

Close the Local Group Policy Editor

Log off and then log back into Vista.

Right click on taskbar, select Properties and click the tab Notification Area. Under System Icons, make sure the Volume and Network boxes are checked. Apply and exit by pressing OK.

Window Minimizes Instead of Restores

QUESTION: My restore option is giving the same result as minimization for one document... therefore I am not able to re-size (restore) the window. Its either maximum or minimum!! What should I do?

ANSWER: The reason I ask for an email address is so that I can answer you directly if I have questions. But I will post the questions here since you didn't supply an address and hope that you get them.

When you say it's the same result as minimization for one document, what do you mean? That it only shows on the Taskbar and nowhere else?

First, make sure it isn't hiding on your desktop. Click the Restore button on the Window, then right-click on the Taskbar and arrange the windows by cascading, tiling, or whatever to see all windows on the Desktop. If it shows up on the Desktop, then resize it to a larger size and that will be the new Restore size and location.

If it doesn't show up on the Desktop when you do the above, something more serious is wrong. Without knowing what type of file it is, I can't speculate. If you remember a time when it appeared correctly, you can restore your system to that date. If it is a system bug causing this, it will be gone.

Taskbar icons won't stay hidden

QUESTION: Even though the Hide Inactive Icons button is checked on the XP Taskbar and Start Menu Properties screen, some of the "Always Hide" icons on the toolbar will not stay hidden. Likewise, some of the "Always Show" icons will not show. How can I get the Toolbar to show the icons I want to see? Thank you for your help.

ANSWER: I received this question 6 days ago but I waited to answer because I wanted to set up my Taskbar properties on 2 of my XP PCs (desktop and laptop) to see if they changed as they evidently do in your situation. I right-clicked on the Taskbar and choose Properties. I clicked in the checkbox that says "Hide inactive icons" as you did and then clicked on the Customize button. I set up some icons to "Always Hide" and some to "Always Show" -- same ones on both PCs. I've restarted both PCs more than once. As an aside, one PC is set for automatic Windows updates and the other is set to manual updates and the former had an update during the period.

The end result for me has been that during this week they have remained as I set them on both PCs. Even if I opened the program for an icon that I set to Always Hide, such as my AVG virus program, the icon did not reappear.

I also searched as many XP chat groups and forums as I could and no on reports this exact problem, so I am unable to help you. I'm wondering if your system has a bug in it. Some groups did speak of editing their registry, but I don't do that sort of thing myself so I can't advise you on it.

Sorry I couldn't be of help. Good luck!

Clock Tooltip Doesn't Pop Up

Question: When the mouse cursor passes over the clock on the taskbar a little window is supposed to pop up with the date & time. Sometimes this does not happen. If I double click on the clock and then close the date & time properties window then it works again, but some time later, it again will not pop up the date/time window. The other items on the taskbar pop up a small window with information; only the clock pop-up doesn't work. Any ideas what causes this erratic operation ?

Answer: These little pop-up messages are called Tooltips. There are a few things that can cause the problem you're asking about where the Tooltip doesn't show up, or doesn't appear to show up.

1. It can be an incompatibility with your anti-virus software, such as Norton. I'm not an expert on PC technical problems, but I suspect it sees the tooltip as an unwanted pop-up window. I don't have this problem, but if I turn my pop-off blocker on in Internet Explorer, I get the same problem the first few times I move my mouse over the Clock. After the tooltip finally shows up the first time, I don't have the problem again.

2. There's a known Microsoft bug (see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912650)
that causes tooltips to sometimes hide behind the Taskbar. Depending on how wide your Taskbar is, you might see the top of the tooltip or perhaps not, if it's completely hidden underneath. There's no Microsoft fix for this bug, but other companies offer some software
to fix it.

Tooltipfixer

Tool Tip Manager

The Elder Greek on Windows XP mentions a free shareware solution for this.

Please note I cannot vouch for the reliability or safety of any mentioned software, nor can I know the compatibility with your PC. Always use caution when installing third party software.

If you just want to be able to see the date and time all the time, widen your Taskbar to a double height by dragging it upward. The time, day and date should stay on display.

Showing the Date on the Taskbar

Question: Can I show the date along with the time on the Taskbar?

Answer: The date will show up if your Taskbar is two lines (double) in height. Drag the top horizontal edge of the Taskbar up to do that. On PCs that also show the day of the week, you might have to resize your Taskbar to a three-line height.

With Vista you can click on the Sidebar icon to make it show up on your desktop and customize it so that the calendar and clock show on it.

Clock tells the wrong time

Question: My clock doesn’t tell the right time.

Answer: Double-click on the time on the System Tray (single click with Vista) and select “Adjust Date/Time.” If you’re connected to the Internet, you can have your clock synchronize with the Internet. Or you can adjust the time yourself. If you do that, make sure you click on the time zone tab and select the correct time zone and click the Daylight Savings checkbox if applicable. If your PC was purchased prior to the new Daylight Savings Time set in March 2007, you may want to turn that feature off.

Hiding items on the System Tray / Notification Area

Question: There are a bunch of items on my System Tray that I don’t care about. How can I hide them?

Answer: Right-click on the Taskbar and click on Properties. The Taskbar and Start Menu Properties menu should open with the Taskbar menu showing on top. There will be an option called “Hide Inactive Icons.” Check that box. You can also hide the clock if you want. An arrow will show up at the beginning of the tray in case you want to take a look at the hidden icons. You will get an annoying message at least a couple of times in the future that says “Some of your icons are hidden. Click here to view them.” Click on the X to close the message and hope that it eventually goes away for good.

Note: That area is called the System Tray in XP but it's called the Notification Area in Vista

Arranging only *some* of your windows on the Desktop

Question: How can I tile some of my windows, but not all of them?

Answer: First, minimize the windows that you don't want tiled, cascaded or otherwise arranged on your Desktop. Then right-click on the Taskbar and choose "Tile Windows horizontally" (XP) or "Show Windows Stacked" (Vista) or whichever option you want to choose. The windows that you minimized will not be included.

Arranging windows on the Desktop

Question: When I right-click on the Taskbar and select “Show Windows Stacked” (in Vista), all the windows don’t show up stacked on my Desktop. Another one is still on the Taskbar but doesn’t get stacked.

Answer: These actions that apply to windows only work for the windows that are open on your desktop. Any windows that are minimized will not be included in tiling, stacking, cascading or other window auto-arranging actions.

Closed window still shows on Taskbar

Question: I closed all windows by clicking on the X’s, but one of them still shows on the Taskbar even though it’s not on my Desktop.

Answer: Sometimes this happens, especially with pop-up ads from the Internet. Right-click on the item on the Taskbar and select Close.

Taskbar won't resize

Question: I want to resize my Taskbar to make it double in height, but even though I get the two-headed arrow, I can’t resize it upward.

Answer: You have a window maximized on your screen or you have all your windows stacked, which fills up the screen. The Taskbar can only expand if there is room for it to do so, so minimize any full screen windows before you try to resize the Taskbar.

Right-clicking on the Taskbar

Question: Sometimes I right-click on an item on the Taskbar (like the Volume control), and a menu for something else pops up.

Answer: Possibly you weren’t exactly on top of the Volume control when you right-clicked, but sometimes this just happens. The easiest way out is to press your Escape key and the menu will disappear. Then try again.

Cascading windows with the Taskbar

Question: I want to cascade all my open windows but I can’t find an empty place on the Taskbar to click on unless I close windows first and I don’t want to do that.

Answer: You can either drag the Taskbar upwards to make it wider until an empty area shows up and click there, or you can right-click on the Clock, if it’s showing on your System Tray /Notification Area of the Taskbar. The clock is the only Taskbar item you can right-click on that will give you the same menu as clicking on an empty area of the Taskbar.

Taskbar gets wider when I try to move it

Question: When I try to move my Taskbar, it just gets wider.

Answer: You are resizing it rather than moving it. This can happen if your mouse pointer is too close to the edge of the Taskbar when you click to drag and drop. Being close to the edge can cause the pointer to turn into a two-headed resizing arrow, which you might not have noticed.

Make sure your mouse pointer is smack in the middle of an empty area on the Taskbar before you click to drag the Taskbar to another location.

Taskbar disappeared

Question: My Taskbar has disappeared.

Answer: Try these things.

1. First minimize all your open windows. Look carefully at the perimeter of your screen for a thin line the color of your Taskbar. If you see the thin line, move your mouse over it until you get the 2-headed arrow and drag toward the center of your screen. If that works, then your Taskbar was dragged off the screen.

2. If you don’t see the edge of the Taskbar, move your mouse pointer around the perimeter of your screen to see if the Taskbar pops up. If it does, then it’s set to “Auto Hide” which means that it disappears unless you point to it. Point to it to make it appear, right-click on an empty area and unclick Auto Hide. While you’re in the Taskbar menu, make sure the option for keeping the Taskbar on top of other windows is checked. Even if you decide you like the auto hide feature, you will still want the Taskbar to stay on top. Otherwise, if you have a window filling the screen, pointing to where the Taskbar is hiding won’t make the Taskbar show up because it will be under your open window.

If your Taskbar disappears more often than you’d like, you can lock it in place by right-clicking on it and choosing Lock the Taskbar. You will have to unlock it, though, if you want to make any changes to it.

Taskbar won't move or resize

Question: I can’t get the Taskbar to move. I can’t even get a two-headed arrow to resize it with.

Answer: Your Taskbar is probably locked. Right-click on the Taskbar and click on Lock the Taskbar to remove the check mark and unlock it.