Taskbar acting weird

turkeypets

New Member
My Vista64 taskbar is acting strange out of the blue, i attached a couple pictures.
The time disappears and other icon shift to the right, and the middle of the taskbar turns black.
This happens once in a while. Advice would be very much appreciated.
 

Attachments

  • DSC00255-1.jpg
    DSC00255-1.jpg
    150.2 KB · Views: 2
  • DSC00256-1.jpg
    DSC00256-1.jpg
    172.2 KB · Views: 2

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Vista64
Hi turkeypets:

Your images would suggest your having problems with the icons in your System Tray (i.e., at the far right of taskbar where the system clock normally appears). Is that correct?

Windows Taskbar Areas.jpg

I'm not sure why system tray icons like your system clock would occasionally appear/disappear, but right-click on a blank area of your taskbar and choose Properties (or go to Control Panel | Appearance and Personalization | Taskbar and Start Menu) and ensure the settings on the Taskbar and Notification tab are configured to your personal preference. Make sure all the standard Windows system tray icons you'd like to see (Clock, Volume, Network, Power) are enabled, and if you have other icons that load into your System Tray (e.g., icons for your antivirus, printer, etc.) that you always want to see then disable the "Hide Inactive Icons" checkbox.

Hide Inactive Icons.jpg

Once your Quick Launch and System Tray icons are displayed on your taskbar the way you prefer go to the Taskbar tab and enable "Lock the Taskbar" and then see if that solves your problem.

Vista SP2 Auto-Hide Taskbar.png
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    32-bit Vista SP2 Home Premium
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv6835ca
    CPU
    Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz
    Motherboard
    Quanta 30D2 (U2E1)
    Memory
    3 GB RAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Hard Drives
    250 GB SATA Western Digital Scorpio WD2500BEVS 5400 rpm
    Other Info
    Malwarebytes Premium v3.5.1-1.0.365 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0
  • Operating System
    64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 15 5584
    CPU
    Intel i5-8265U @1.60/1.80 GHz
    Motherboard
    Dell Inc. 07R8NW
    Memory
    8 GB DDR4 SDRAM
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel UHD Graphics 620
    Hard Drives
    Toshiba 256 GB KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD
    Other Info
    Microsoft Defender * Malwarebytes Premium * Firefox
Just restart.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Vista Home Premium x86 SP2
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion Elite m9150f
    CPU
    Intel Q6600
    Memory
    3 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
Hi turkeypets:

Your images would suggest your having problems with the icons in your System Tray (i.e., at the far right of taskbar where the system clock normally appears). Is that correct?

View attachment 31040

I'm not sure why system tray icons like your system clock would occasionally appear/disappear, but right-click on a blank area of your taskbar and choose Properties (or go to Control Panel | Appearance and Personalization | Taskbar and Start Menu) and ensure the settings on the Taskbar and Notification tab are configured to your personal preference. Make sure all the standard Windows system tray icons you'd like to see (Clock, Volume, Network, Power) are enabled, and if you have other icons that load into your System Tray (e.g., icons for your antivirus, printer, etc.) that you always want to see then disable the "Hide Inactive Icons" checkbox.

View attachment 31042

Once your Quick Launch and System Tray icons are displayed on your taskbar the way you prefer go to the Taskbar tab and enable "Lock the Taskbar" and then see if that solves your problem.

View attachment 31043
thanks Imacri!
i have all those setiings set already but this problem happens sometimes anyway. My volume sometimes dissapears too and dont work until i restart. My folder settings change by itself too. much more frequently than the taskbar problem. like Vistaar suggests to restart that does fix the taskbar, would love to know why it happens in the first place. i appreciate your time.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Vista64
... My volume sometimes dissapears too and dont work until i restart. My folder settings change by itself too. much more frequently than the taskbar problem....

Hi turkeypets:

Your system tray icons look quite different than mine, but that might be because I have a 32-bit Vista SP2 Home Premium OS that is fully patched to end of extended support (11-Apr-2017).

Vista SP2 Local and Internet WiFi Access.png

What is the make and model of your computer, what edition of 64-bit Vista (Basic, Home Premium, etc.) do you have, and is Service Pack 2 (SP2) installed? If you aren't sure if your OS is patched to end of support launch your Internet Explorer 9 browser and go to Help | About Internet Explorer; if Windows Update delivered the final batch of Patch Tuesday updates on 11-Apr-2017 you should have Update Version 9.0.6 / (KB4014661) (Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 9: April 11, 2017).

Vista System Information Service Pack.png

IE9 Version KB4014661 April 2017.png

If you haven't done so lately, you should run a thorough Check Disk (chkdsk /r) and System File Checker (sfc /scannow) from an elevated command prompt with Administrator rights as instructed in my 18-Aug-2020 post in ChrisKouz's thread Rundll32.exe is Not a Valid Win32 Application / Vista Home Premium with SP2 to see if those built-in utilities can detect and automatically repair any problems with your system files. Once System File Checker has run to completion it should report "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations" as shown below. [Note: it is safe to run a thorough Check Disk if your hard drive is a HDD (i.e., a spinning magnetic platter) but I would skip this step if you have a SSD (solid state drive)].

Vista SP2 System File Checker SFC Scannow EDITED 22 Jul 2019.png
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    32-bit Vista SP2 Home Premium
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv6835ca
    CPU
    Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz
    Motherboard
    Quanta 30D2 (U2E1)
    Memory
    3 GB RAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Hard Drives
    250 GB SATA Western Digital Scorpio WD2500BEVS 5400 rpm
    Other Info
    Malwarebytes Premium v3.5.1-1.0.365 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0
  • Operating System
    64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 15 5584
    CPU
    Intel i5-8265U @1.60/1.80 GHz
    Motherboard
    Dell Inc. 07R8NW
    Memory
    8 GB DDR4 SDRAM
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel UHD Graphics 620
    Hard Drives
    Toshiba 256 GB KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD
    Other Info
    Microsoft Defender * Malwarebytes Premium * Firefox
The reason his taskbar doesn't look like either mine or that of Imacri is because he's using a different theme (looks like Windows Classic). It also looks like he's got a low resolution system. However, the recommended fixes from Imacri seem to be appropriate to get the system to stop periodically screwing up.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Vista Home Premium 64 bit SP2
    Manufacturer/Model
    Cyberpower
    CPU
    Intel Quad CPU Q6700 2.67 GHZ
    Motherboard
    NVIDIA 780i
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI GTX 560 TI Twin Frozr
    Sound Card
    Sound Blaster SB Audigy
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Viewsonic VG2436
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080p
    Hard Drives
    Samsung HD 105SI
    WDC WD20
    Case
    Apevia XJupiter
    Cooling
    air
    Keyboard
    Logitech MX 3200
    Mouse
    Logitech MX 600
    Internet Speed
    30 Mbps
...like Vistaar suggests to restart that does fix the taskbar, would love to know why it happens in the first place.
Vista system tray icons have always been glitchy, and System File Checker was never known to solve this issue. You should probably consider a newer version of Windows.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Vista Home Premium x86 SP2
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion Elite m9150f
    CPU
    Intel Q6600
    Memory
    3 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
Hi turkeypets:

Have you made any progress with your taskbar icon issue?

If you still require assistance let us know if you're using a custom theme for your Windows installation other than "Windows Vista" (see Brink's tutorial at How to Change the Desktop Theme in Vista) and whether you've seen any other odd glitches with your Vista installation like unexpected changes in screen resolution, problems waking from sleep mode, etc.

If you suspect you might be having problems with your graphics card or other hardware component it would be helpful if you could publish a Speccy snapshot so we know your basic hardware configuration and current graphics driver. To publish a Speccy snapshot:
  1. Install Piriform's free Speccy utility (available for download <here>).
  2. Launch the program and allow it to populate the interface with information about your system software and hardware.
  3. Go to File | Publish Snapshot and copy and paste the URL this generates (e.g., http: // speccy.piriform.com/results/xxx... as shown in the image below) in your next reply.
Speccy Snapshot Copy to Clipboard.png

** Note that I prefer to use the portable (spsetup132.zip) version of Speccy available <here>. I can unzip and run the .exe file (Speccy.exe for a 32-bit OS; Speccy64.exe for your 64-bit OS) from any location, including a removable USB thumb drive.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    32-bit Vista SP2 Home Premium
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv6835ca
    CPU
    Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz
    Motherboard
    Quanta 30D2 (U2E1)
    Memory
    3 GB RAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Hard Drives
    250 GB SATA Western Digital Scorpio WD2500BEVS 5400 rpm
    Other Info
    Malwarebytes Premium v3.5.1-1.0.365 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0
  • Operating System
    64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 15 5584
    CPU
    Intel i5-8265U @1.60/1.80 GHz
    Motherboard
    Dell Inc. 07R8NW
    Memory
    8 GB DDR4 SDRAM
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel UHD Graphics 620
    Hard Drives
    Toshiba 256 GB KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD
    Other Info
    Microsoft Defender * Malwarebytes Premium * Firefox
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