Notification Area (SP2)

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I am running Windows XP SP2 and suddenly my notification area is overcrowded, 12 items in all. Previously only a few were showing and to see the others I had to click a little button with two left-pointing arrows. In Task Bar properties I have Hide Inactive Icons checked. What have I done wrong?

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You can click Customize… in the TaskBar properties window to turn off individual icons.
For some of these icons, such as the Volume and LAN connection controls, there’s a check box in the relevant Control Panel. For others, there’s a check box in the Options or Preferences dialog of the corresponding application.

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Under Customise in the TaskBar properties I have them all marked as Hide when Inactive. But strangely, a couple of hours after posting my original post the little left-pointing arrow suddenly appeared again in the notification area and only three icons were showing. So, why it had disappeared and why it suddnly returned is a total mystery.

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The behavior of the notification area in Windows XP (and apparently in Windows Vista too) is very mysterious. Sometimes you need to reboot to get things right again.

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And sometimes, tho’ not often enough, toggling the option off/on (or on/off) with an “apply” after each step, will restore the status quo.

I prefer the taskbar on Autohide, but sometimes Windows “forgets” about it. The “off/on” trick can fix it, but often only partly. with tooltips hidden behind the taskbar, and then the only “cure” is a reboot.

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If they items were hidden, and all of a sudden appeared, does that mean that they were recently active? Now, why would a bunch of programs supposedly running in the background suddenly become active? I don’t know. But perhaps something triggered them — like a virus scanner?? Just guessing, but I think it has to be something as benign as that. (Ridicule not frowned upon).

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I may have been unclear. What I referred to was the tooltips for notification area icons being partially hidden behind the taskbar, see below…

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Have you enabled “Hide inactive icons” in the taskbar properties ?

StuartR

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Doesn’t his post state that explicitly?

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Yes, I have. I mentioned this in my original post.

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