Azure VPN status indicator on Taskbar doesn't match status of Azure VPN Client

Hello Lisa Mathewson,

Greetings! Thanks for raising this question in the Q&A forum

I looked into this and your IT consultant's diagnosis lines up with what I found. This is not something wrong with your VPN connection itself, it is a known category of issue where Windows caches the taskbar notification area icon state and does not always redraw it in sync with the app's actual status. The Azure VPN Client updates its tray icon using the standard Windows Shell_NotifyIcon mechanism, and Windows 11's notification area is known to hold onto a stale bitmap for an icon until something forces a repaint, especially after sleep or resume, after Explorer restarts in the background, or when the icon has been moved between the visible tray and the overflow "hidden icons" area. That explains why the mismatch goes in both directions rather than always failing the same way.

Since a full app reinstall did not fix it, the cache lives in Windows Explorer's shell, not in the Azure VPN Client itself. Please try these steps in order.

Step 1: Force an icon repaint by hovering over it

Hover your mouse directly over the Azure icon in the taskbar for a couple of seconds without clicking. This is the fastest way to trigger Windows to re-query the current icon state from the app and often fixes it instantly for that session.

Step 2: Restart Windows Explorer to clear the cached tray icon state

This clears every cached notification area icon and forces Windows to rebuild them fresh.

Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager
Find Windows Explorer in the Processes list
Right-click it, select Restart

Step 3: Remove and re-add the icon to the visible taskbar area

This forces Windows to forget the icon's cached position and redraw state entirely, rather than just repainting it.

Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Other system tray icons
Toggle the Azure VPN Client icon off, then back on

Step 4: Confirm you are not running two client processes under different privilege contexts

If the Azure VPN Client was ever launched once as Administrator and separately as your normal user, Windows can end up tracking two separate tray icon handles for the same app, and only one of them reflects the real connection state. Check for duplicate processes.

Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager
Details tab, look for more than one AzVpnClient or AzVpnHelper entry

If you find duplicates, close all of them, then relaunch the client normally without Run as administrator.

Step 5: Update to the latest Azure VPN Client version

Icon refresh timing has been adjusted in past client releases. Confirm your version and update if a newer one is available.

Open Azure VPN Client, select the … menu, select About, to check your current version
Latest client download: https://aka.ms/azvpnclientdownload

Step 6: Rule out Windows shell caching corruption

If the mismatch keeps returning after Explorer restarts cleanly resolve it temporarily, the underlying icon cache database on disk may be corrupted. This is a broader Windows behavior, not specific to Azure VPN Client.

# Run in an elevated PowerShell prompt, then restart the PC
taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe
ie4uinit.exe -show
Remove-Item "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\IconCache.db" -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Start-Process explorer.exe

Step 7: Report it through Feedback Hub if the mismatch persists

Since your IT consultant already concluded the fault sits in Microsoft's UI layer rather than in the Azure VPN Client's connection logic, filing a report through Feedback Hub with a screen recording helps the Windows shell team see the exact desync pattern, since Microsoft Q&A moderators cannot directly influence Windows shell rendering behavior.

Open Feedback Hub, choose Devices and Drivers > Networking, describe the taskbar icon and status mismatch, attach the screenshot you shared here

If this answer helps you kindly accept the answer which will help others who have similar questions.

Best Regards,

Jerald Felix.