Icons Keep Disappearing From Taskbar - Windows 11

I have two computers running Windows 11, a laptop and a desktop. Both have this issue. I believe the laptop had this issue right after doing a clean install. Probably the 1st or 2nd boot.

I have previously used the restart explorer.exe method to fix it. I also use multiple virtual desktops and switching between them sometimes is the cause of the issue, but is also sometimes the fix.

As such, I would advise everyone to stay away from invasive "fixes" like dsm repair or OS upgrade, or a reinstall. Most likely it will happen again regardless. I can't believe how MS cannot fix such a small bug in the most used UI of the OS for so long.

For anyone wanting a permanent fix, I think you'll have to install Windows 10...

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Extreme which I methodically keep up-to-date on latest Windows 11 version, BIOS, drivers, etc, since I'm an obsessed app designer type. I've had this problem since updating to Windows 11 last year. Not always, just sometimes. It seems to be associated with a period of sleep or hibernation. Some icons disappear from the task bar and leave spaces. However, the button areas are still active normally. When hovering over them, they show the task label. After selecting a hidden one and opening the task, the icon usually reappears.

This is an irritating behavior, but I can live with it because other than no icon, things work normally and they seem to come back on their own. My point in writing this post is to tell Microsoft that it's definitely THEIR problem, not the user's. So if you have the problem, you should probably not bother spending hours trying to fix it. Microsoft, if you can't fix it, at least add a right'click drop down selection on the task bar called "Refresh Task Bar" to restore icons.

Well after doing this,

(This is in Windows 11)

Right click open desktop space, and select;

• PERSONALIZATION,
• TASKBAR,
• TASKBAR BEHAVIORS, Then toggle either,
• SHOW MY TASKBAR ON ALL DISPLAYS, or,
• SHARE ANY WINDOW FROM MY TASKBAR (I toggled both, but don’t remember which one actually fixed it.)

The icons disappeared only one more time on Nov 7th, but not again since then... Strange!

Replying here to say that.... sadly this is still an issue on my Windows 11 - up to date with software updates, drivers, etc

I'm having this same issue taskbar icons disappearing after sleep mode , Asus G15 . hoping to get a fix soon