This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
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.
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.
It turns out that my issue was being caused by a shortcut to a program named USBDeview on the taskbar. Once I removed that shortcut all was well.
Maybe clear the icons from your taskbar and add them back one at a time to see if your root cause was the same as mine.
I've got exactly the same problem - all my taskbar icons show after a system re-start, but some are not visible after the system comes back from "sleep". The empty tiles are still in their correct position, and when I left click the blank tile, the icon re-appears and the program launches. Also, its not every tile, because some of them still are showing the icon. I'm running Windows 11 22H2, having upgraded from Windows 10 about three weeks ago. Everything was working fine until about a day ago - but now its happening regularly. I don't know if it matters, but I switched all the Taskbar icons to the left, to look like Windows 10. I'm running a Dell XPS 8930 with a Nvidia GTX1660 Ti. Everything is up-to date. To me, everything points to a bug in Windows - but if anyone can give advice I'd be very grateful. This never happened to me in Windows 10 ............
I've got exactly the same problem - all my taskbar icons show after a system re-start, but some are not visible after the system comes back from "sleep". The empty tiles are still in their correct position, and when I left click the blank tile, the icon re-appears and the program launches. Also, its not every tile, because some of them still are showing the icon. I'm running Windows 11 22H2, having upgraded from Windows 10 about three weeks ago. Everything was working fine until about a day ago - but now its happening regularly. I don't know if it matters, but I switched all the Taskbar icons to the left, to look like Windows 10. I'm running a Dell XPS 8930 with a Nvidia GTX1660 Ti. Everything is up-to date. To me, everything points to a bug in Windows - but if anyone can give advice I'd be very grateful. This never happened to me in Windows 10 ............
You described my situation perfectly. Wake from sleep, Dell XPS and Nvidia video card. Restarting windows explorer fixes it until the next time it happens.
This issue started appearing on my previous HP Envy laptop soon as I updated it to Windows 11. and continued till today. I actually just bought a brand new MSI Katana G66 gaming laptop with a GEFORCE RTX 3 3050 and I experienced this issue from the first use! and still have it.
I have to shut it down after use so that it starts fresh next time and not rely on Sleep mode as I will have to restart it anyway due to the missing icons and non-responsive start menu.
I have checked and I do have the latest drivers for all of the hardware. I am also on the latest Windows 11 Build and updates.
Interestingly I have seen this post on many forums and have also seen it here on Microsoft through several threads and am surprised there is no one that has looked into it seriously.
Microsft Team, can you help? and please don't give me the restart Explorer option, this is ridiculous, the issue is persistent and easily replicated 100% of the time, just simply by the computer waken up from sleep, the taskbar looks in a very bad state.
You mention that you have a GeForce adapter. I too have one but the NVIDIA GeForce 1650 Ti. Could the GeForce be linked to the issue?
I did upgrade the GeForce drivers yesterday. I also went to the GeForce dashboard and forced the the system to use the GeForce by default. Maybe coincidentally the icons have not (yet) disappeared from the taskbar
