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

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-06-01T09:27:45+00:00

    I think that you are totally right - there is some bug in Windows 11 that just makes the Icons disappear. People seem to have workarounds to make them come back, but no-one has a reliable way of preventing it. What I found is that there is no obvious pattern - I did try things ( Like removing icons) which seemed to work short term, but then it came back again.

    The only good thing I can say, is that without me doing anything, the problem seems to have gone into remission, and I have only had them disappear once in the last couple of months - mostly everything is OK now. No idea why !!

    It's definitely an Windows bug, affecting a lot of people, and its been around for quite a long time.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-05-31T17:24:41+00:00

    I'm here with the same issue. I was hoping there was an east fix but it doesn't look like there is. My last computer had a free upgrade to Windows 11 and the first 4 months of that were spent with the Windows shortcut both vanishing as an icon and disappearing as a function.

    I think Windows 11 just makes things disappear.

    Remove all the non Microsoft shortcuts from the task bar and see if the problem still exists. The cause of my issue was an icon I added (USBDeview).

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-05-31T14:48:46+00:00

    I'm here with the same issue. I was hoping there was an east fix but it doesn't look like there is. My last computer had a free upgrade to Windows 11 and the first 4 months of that were spent with the Windows shortcut both vanishing as an icon and disappearing as a function.

    I think Windows 11 just makes things disappear.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-05-30T04:47:16+00:00

    It's not browser-dependent. Many people have this issue, it also happens for those using Chrome, Edge, etc.

    I use this workaround:

    • When the Taskbar has become invisible after the computer wakes from Sleep, right-click on the Taskbar area.
    • In the pop-up menu, choose Display Settings.
    • In the Multiple Displays settings screen which then appears (see screenshot below), toggle the checkboxes until the Taskbar appears again.
    • Set the checkboxes again to your preferred setting.

    Image

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-05-30T04:10:47+00:00

    I have the same problem and it happens quite often actually. I have been restarting explorer.exe so many times DAILY!

    I noticed the issue happen when screen goes to sleep then I move the mouse to use my PC again.

    I have my monitors connected via DisplayPort 1.2.

    Sometime the taskbar change to show only 2-3 icons max, and all others are hidden

    But, some other times the taskbar completely disappear, like no clock or date or anything lol

    I wonder if brave broswer has something to do with it? can anybody confirm if brave is installed in their PC since it's one of those icons who always remain after other icons disappear.

    Can we please get a fix Microsoft, if the issue is widespread maybe it's a good time to take action on it?

    Thanks

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