systray no load on start up? 1

[Stud1905]

Hello all, good to come back to this forum.

I am currently running Windows XP Pro with all the updates. THe past two days i seemed to run into a problem. When i started up my comp for the day i noticed that my screen was just idling and was not going into windows really from the log in screen. I came back later that day and noticed i could not right click on my desktop background, and i only thing i could do is go to my taskmanager through alt+tab+del. Nothin else was responding. In the task manager i noticed that my virus scan and stuff was running in the background but no taskbar was running (systray). Also my desktop icons and shortcuts were not there. So i was forced to open programs through the run menu linked to the task manager. That was my only option.

I believe that my systray is not loading on start up.

http://tasteofmidwest.com/misc/nosystray.jpg

shows this.
But odd thing i noticed though, when i shutdown/restart the comp as all the programs would normally close, my screen would put the taskbar on then along with the desktop icons. I don't understand as why this would happen. But when it starts up again, they are not there.

Once again

http://tasteofmidwest.com/misc/nosystray.jpg

shows my current screen. Previous to this happening i do not believe i downloaded anything more then the half-life2 e3 demo movie(which is amazing btw). I ran a virus scan also and it came up with nothing at all.

Does anyone have any clue how i can go about fixing this?
I would appreciate any advise, or else ill end up reinstalling.

Also i have not set any restore points yet if that means anything.

Once again, thank you much in advance. Later

 

[linney]

Can you launch Explorer.exe via Task Manager and see if that does anything.

818150 - Start Menu and Windows Task Bar Are Missing After You Upgrade to Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;818150&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

Have you changed any Display Settings?

Some general things to try.



Try Safe Mode (Do you have this problem in Safe Mode?). Try loading the "Last Known Good Configuration" option.

Run the System File Checker program from the Run Box by typing.....Sfc /Scannow in it and have your XP CD handy.

HOW TO: Verify Unsigned Device Drivers in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q308/5/14.asp

Try running ChkDsk to check your drive for errors. Right click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking. Or run it from Recovery Console.

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console for Windows XP (Q307654)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q307/6/54.asp

If they don't work you could try repairing windows itself by running it over itself. You will lose all your windows updates but your files will be untouched.

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP (Q315341)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q315/3/41.asp

 

[bcastner]

Did you stop the Themes service? Were you editing any of the service entries for XP?

 

[Stud1905]

Thank you for the help, i did the error checks and chkdsk etc. That did not change anything or come up with anything. I did not update my video or change my theme or anything.

So i decided to reinstall. Which is good because it was beginning to lag anyways. Thank for the Help. Later

 

[bcastner]

You did the right thing.

Best.

 

[daslett]

I have seen this problem with systems running Tivoli on them. Periodically the systray just would not load. After a reboot it would be fine. Systems without Tivoli never experienced the problem.

 

[bcastner]

The whole systray service is a mess, my opinion.
It is awfully handy, but the Microsoft direction shown by XP is fairly clear: they would like it to go away except for a few service agent client tasks.

In the official literature it has been renamed several times, currently it is the "notification area." You are not allowed to say "tray."

I am not trying to pick on Microsoft. The APIs for tray services are quite weak, and for a software developer the strong suggestion from Microsoft is to not use the tray area in the way many applications currently do. Those who have played with Longhorn in Alpha release can see the direction, still not solidifed, that Microsoft is leaning in terms of the use of the notification area.

After wasting too much time adjusting load order and other tricks to have the tray work the way I wanted, I ended up resorting to a third party tray manager, X-Tray from

http://www.xdesksoftware.com

 

[motoxxx1389]

I use a whole different shell. Aston Shell. Utilizies winxp but explorer.exe is not running. Much more stable and I actually notice a slight performance increase.