[Systray Icon] Systray icon disappear after restart

[hluica]

Microsoft PowerToys version

0.80.0

Installation method

GitHub

Running as admin

Yes

Area(s) with issue?

System tray interaction

Detail

• What I did: removed the charger, the battery saver turned on automatically.
• Then: the systray icon of PowerToys disappeared (together with some other icons, with uncertain reason).
• After that: after restart, the icon didn't come back.
• Now: the program upgrades to 0.81, the icon comes back, but it disappears again after restart.

[github-actions[bot]]

Hi I'm an AI powered bot that finds similar issues based off the issue title.

Please view the issues below to see if they solve your problem, and if the issue describes your problem please consider closing this one and thumbs upping the other issue to help us prioritize it. Thank you!

Open similar issues:

• there isn't any tray icon of PowerToys in the tray when it running in the background (#11519), similarity score: 0.77

Closed similar issues:

• PowerToys icon not appearing in system tray (#27383), similarity score: 0.78
• The task tray icon does not appear (#31943), similarity score: 0.78
• Awake Icon in taskbar (#21351), similarity score: 0.77
• Powertoys Icon Disappearing from Tray (#18974), similarity score: 0.76

Note: You can give me feedback by thumbs upping or thumbs downing this comment.

[hluica]

System info

• OS: Windows 11
• Build: 24H2 (26120.670 ge_release)
• Insider channel: Dev
• CPU: 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900HX
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU

Other information

• Try: uninstall the whole program, use Geek Uninstaller to remove all associated files, then re-install from GitHub
• What happened: the problem remains. (The icon appears after install, but it disappears again after restart.)
• bug report result (after the re-install): PowerToysReport_2024-05-22-14-02-40.zip
• PS: when run the report tool, it shows: Failed to parse file %LocalAppData%\Temp\PowerToys\FancyZones\app-zone-history.json , with uncertain reason...

[jaimecbernardo]

That's weird. Do you have perhaps some sort of multi user scenario? PowerToys is started by a scheduled Task, can you please check in "Task Scheduler" "Task Scheduler Library">"PowerToys" if the task is running as the user you'd expect it too? It should show if you select the "Autorun for {username}" action in that folder and then check the general tab for the author and the user that is in "When running the task, use the following user account:" /needinfo

[hluica]

That's weird. Do you have perhaps some sort of multi user scenario? PowerToys is started by a scheduled Task, can you please check in "Task Scheduler" "Task Scheduler Library">"PowerToys" if the task is running as the user you'd expect it too? It should show if you select the "Autorun for {username}" action in that folder and then check the general tab for the author and the user that is in "When running the task, use the following user account:" /needinfo

1. I've checked that the only user except the build-ins is the current used user.
2. I've checked the settings in the Task Scheduler and they're correct.
3. However, I noticed that the Last Run Result is The task has not yet run. (0x41303) . I checked the Startup in Task Manager and the registry but didn't find anything like PowerToys.exe. How could it start together with Windows?
   • the registry keys been checked:
   • HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
   • HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
   • HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
   • HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager

Other information

• I found that if I only sign out and then sign in, the icon will come back (but some other icons disappeared) , but if I restart, it disappears again. Interesting...

[jaimecbernardo]

Weird. Is PowerToys running even though the icon isn't there, though? You can check in Task Manager if PowerToys is running. by looking for the PowerToys.exe process. /needinfo I'm thinking the issue here might be that PowerToys is just not starting at all.

[jaimecbernardo]

Another thing that is worth trying would be disabling the "Run at startup" setting in PowerToys Settings and enabling it again to see if it's a permissions issue.

[hluica]

Weird. Is PowerToys running even though the icon isn't there, though? You can check in Task Manager if PowerToys is running. by looking for the PowerToys.exe process. /needinfo I'm thinking the issue here might be that PowerToys is just not starting at all.

Update: add the system info in the former comment

• If the problem is just not running, I will not just describe the icon as "disappear". I'm sure that the program is running, because all the other features work very well (they're almost necessity for my work, so I'm sure they're working) except the systray icon.
• I've tried your instruction, but nothing changed: the icon appears after re-launch, but it disappears again after restart.

[hluica]

Updated information

• After using it for almost a month, I noticed something: the app icon would show up in certain situations and disappear in others.

• Current system info:

  • OS build: 24H2 (26120.961, Dev Channel)
  • App version: 0.81.1

• In these situations, the app icon may show up (not everytime):

  • Unexpected exit of explorer.exe; after it restart, the icon come back.
  • After the GPU driver update;
  • After unproper computer shut down or restart
  • Anything that would have an influence on the working of taskbar.

• But, a computer restart will still remove the icon.

• I noticed that some other systray icons would disappear in some similar situations:

  • the nvidia icon (which is able to start nvidia control panel and geforce experience) would disappear after restart explorer.exe.
  • the task manager icon would disappear in uncertain situations after using PC for a period of time.

• So this may be a system bug, and I have send a feedback about some similar bugs in feedback hub.