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
    2024-09-10T22:04:01+00:00

    THIS might be the key to the bug (at least for my use case) since I also use virtual desktops and was wondering what the "filter" was that made some icons disappear and not others.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-09-10T22:08:05+00:00

    This is a very interesting attempt at a workaround.

    First, when I disabled animations, the usual "per icon fix" stopped working. Clicking on the invisible icon to restore the window and then minimize it no longer brings back the icon (so it only refreshed as a result of an animation).

    Second, the whole system seems much snappier without any pesky (if cool-looking) animations happening. I might keep it this way and see how that works. Thanks, Craig!

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-10-08T14:22:02+00:00

    Can confirm, it makes the icons to appear again. I click on an app's missing icon, then minimize the app window and the icon appears again.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-11-18T07:27:24+00:00

    for anyone who came to this recently like I did, I've noticed that the icons don't disappear for me if in settings under System > Multitasking I have Desktops > "On the taskbar, show all the open windows" set to "On all desktops".

    If anyone else can confirm it would be nice so I know I'm not crazy.

    My assumption is that when windows adds/removes the icons if you have it set to only show for your current desktop that they aren't being reinitialized correctly.

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-11-30T12:43:32+00:00

    Same here. 24H2 brand new Lenovo laptop and icons disappear. After over thirty years, the shell team STILL didn't get the basics right.

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