How to Fix System Tray or Icons Missing in Windows 10

How to Fix System Tray or Icons Missing in Windows 10.
The Windows 10 taskbar (notification area) is located at the far right of the taskbar and provides access to system notifications, features, and applications.
The taskbar also has shortcuts to some important settings such as network, power, volume, and Action Center icons.

If you hover over the taskbar and notice that the icons you are using are missing, this could be for several reasons. You may have installed Windows Update that caused a crash, or there are corrupted entries in the registry that conflict with Windows 10, causing the taskbar or icons to disappear.
Here’s how to fix the missing icons in the notification area or taskbar in Windows 10.

How to fix system tray or missing icons in Windows 10

There are two ways to show hidden icons on the taskbar: using the mouse and using Windows 10 settings
Using the mouse to show hidden icons on the taskbar
To do this, use your mouse to click the arrow next to the notification area to open the taskbar and show hidden icons. You can also drag icons with cursor to the taskbar.
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Use Windows 10 settings to show hidden icons on the taskbar
If you want all your icons to appear on the taskbar at all times, remove the arrow and expandable bar and turn on Always show all icons in the notification area.

To do this, right-click the taskbar and select Taskbar Options.

Then go to the notification area and click the “Select icons to display on the taskbar” option.

Turn on Always show all icons in the notification area at the top of the list.

Note. The icons on the taskbar are displayed only when the corresponding applications are running.
Enable or disable system icons
If you still don’t see the icons on the taskbar, use the Turn System Icons On or Off option and see if that helps.

To do this, right-click the Taskbar> Taskbar Options.

In the taskbar settings, go to the notification area and select “Turn system icons on or off.”

Find the system icons you want to display on the taskbar and toggle their sliders to On. (if they are off).

Restart your computer for the changes to take effect.
Restart Windows Explorer
Restart Windows Explorer to restart it and restore missing icons on the taskbar or computer.

To do this, right-click the taskbar and select Task Manager.

Select explorer.exe in the Processes tab, right-click and select End Task.
Then open the Application History tab, choose File> Run New Task.

Enter explorer.exe in the message box that appears and click OK.

Windows Explorer (explorer.exe) will restart and the icons will appear on the taskbar. If there is no icon that you do not see, go back to the taskbar settings, select “Turn system icons on or off” and check the box next to the missing icon.
Reset or remove IconCache
The icon cache database contains the icons you see in applications and files for the operating system to display on your screen. Icon caching prevents your system from slowing down because you don’t have to search for icons every time.
However, as the icon cache database grows, it may become corrupted and the icons may not display correctly, appear broken, or be missing from the taskbar.
To fix this issue, try resetting or removing IconCache to fix the issue.
How to reset the IconCache database in Windows 10

To reset the icon cache database, close all running applications and then open a command prompt. Enter CMD in the search bar and select the Run as administrator option.

Enter this path in the Command Prompt window and press Enter:

cd% homepath% AppData Local Microsoft Windows Explorer

Then type dir iconcache * and press Enter (a list of database files will appear).

Stop explorer by typing taskkill / f / im explorer.exe and pressing Enter. You will notice that the taskbar and desktop background disappear after you close File Explorer, but this is temporary. Closing File Explorer helps to delete the icon cache files.
Then type del iconcache * and press Enter.
Type dir iconcache * to confirm that you deleted the icon cache files, and then press Enter. Start Explorer by typing explorer.exe and hitting Enter.

Close Command Prompt to complete the process and Windows will recreate the database files with new icons.
How to delete the IconCache database in Windows 10

To delete the IconCache database, right-click Start> Run and type% appdata% in the Run window “to open the” Move “folder.

In the Roaming folder, select Appdata in the address bar.

Select a local folder.

Select View and select the Hidden Items check box.

Right-click the IconCache in the local folder and choose Delete.

Close Windows Explorer, restart your computer and see if the taskbar and icons are displayed again.

Disable controlled folder access
Controlled Folder Access is a Windows 10 intrusion prevention feature that protects your valuable data from being modified by threats such as malware, viruses, and ransomware. If you find that Windows 10 system tray icons or icons are missing, try disabling the control folder access option and see if they recover after that.

To disable access to the Control Folder, select Start, type Windows Security in the search box, and then select Virus & threat protection.

Scroll down to the Ransomware Protection section and select Manage Ransomware Protection.

Then toggle the Folder Access Control option button to turn it off or on.

Reinstall the taskbar
If your computer is missing the taskbar or icons, it is most likely that the taskbar is not working as expected. To fix this problem, reinstall the taskbar using Windows PowerShell.
Right click on Start> Windows PowerShell (Admin).

Copy and paste this command and press Enter:
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$ ($ _. InstallLocation) AppXManifest.xml”}

Make sure the taskbar and icons are back in the notification area.
Edit Registry
Editing the Windows Registry can help fix errors or damage or prevent unwanted system activity. This process can be dangerous, especially if you made the wrong changes to the wrong entry, so make sure you back up your registry before proceeding to the steps below.

Select Start> Run and type regedit in the Run box to open the Registry Editor.

Then go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Classes LocalSettings Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion TrayNotify.

Select the Tray Notify folder, and then right-click the IconStreams and PastIconsStream to remove their values.

If all else fails, try System Restore, as it will protect and restore your computer’s software. It saves the Windows registry and some system files as restore points for use in the event of data corruption or installation failure.
System Restore returns the system to a working state by restoring the settings and files that were saved in the restore point.

Restore your system tray and icons

We hope these steps helped you get your lost taskbars and icons back. Be sure to search the rest of our site for additional troubleshooting tips and tricks to help you fix other problems across different operating systems and devices.
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