Icons Keep Disappearing From Taskbar - Windows 11

Anonymous
2022-09-07T13:59:50+00:00

I upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11 a few months ago, and ever since I've been having a problem where the icons disappear from the taskbar. It happens while I'm using the laptop as well as when it comes out of hibernation.

I know this can be fixed temporarily by restarting Windows Explorer in the task manager, but this is happening several times a day and it's getting annoying. Is there a permenant fix yet?

I'm using Windows 11 Home version 21H2 build 22000.856 on a HP laptop with an Intel i5 1035G1 processor and 8GB of RAM. The problem didn't exist when I was running Windows 10.

Thanks.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

163 answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2023-12-26T18:05:13+00:00

    This worked for me.

    Open Task Manager (Ctrl, Shift, Esc), scroll down to Windows Processes and find "Windows Explorer". Click on Windows Explorer and up top click "Restart Task."

    Your screen may flicker for a second, but will come back right away with all your taskbar icons present. At least it worked for me. :)

    Best of luck

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2023-12-26T11:52:05+00:00

    Same issue here, icons become invisible when closing a fullscreen app or game or when switching between desktops, started to happen after windows 11 update 23H2, worthy to mention that:

    1- did a reset pc with keep files and apps.

    2- did icon cache rebuild.

    3- did scan system using (sfc & dism).

    4- did reinstall using iso.

    and all above solutions didn't help, this is officially a BUG in windows 11.

    fyi

    Was this answer helpful?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2023-12-24T03:05:47+00:00

    The problem with Windows Explorer in Windows 11 is deep. In addition to the taskbar icons bug, I have seen newer bugs as well

    1. Open minimized Windows Explorer would come to top of the screen for no reason whatsoever with no clicks.
    2. Windows explorer closed windows would stuck on the screen like a background

    We need rewrite for this stupid old library and make it responsive and reliable like MacOS/Linux.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2023-12-11T21:39:37+00:00

    Same problem, in fact more icons are being invisible during the day. Something is messed up when a thread for the same bug begins in Sep 2022 and continues 15 months later... oh wait I forgot, this is Windos

    Was this answer helpful?

    5 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2023-12-05T18:30:36+00:00

    This is happening on my 2 month old laptop that came with win 11. At first power up it did an update.

    Would be nice if MS had a trace and debug tool (like mainframes had even 30 years ago) that could be used to diagnose this type of issue.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments