Disappearing System Tray Icons In Windows Vista - Fix

Disappearing System Tray Icons In Windows Vista - Fix

By   17:47   No comments:

When I working with my laptop (which is running Vista Ultimate) loaded itself out of sleep mode I noticed that the battery, volume, and network icons in the system tray were missing:

Naturally I was puzzled by this, and a little annoyed because I could no longer tell how much battery life was left (important because I like to get up and go sit on the deck while I work every so often).  First thing I did was check the Taskbar properties, and found something odd:

As you can see in the above image, the checkboxes for the volume, network, and power icons are grayed out and not-selectable.  From my Windows development experience, I knew that Vista keeps a cache of recently used system tray icons in the registry, so on a hunch I popped open RegEdit and found where this cache is stored:

 

and the values

 

 

To make a long story short, I backed up the registry, deleted the "Icon Streams" and "Past Icons Stream" values, opened up the Task Manager, ended the "explorer.exe" process, restarted "explorer.exe" and just like that the missing icons had returned:

An odd problem, but thankfully one that is easily fixed. 

It's worth trying to restart explorer.exe (see Step 4) before trying the registry modifications, because that may fix the problem on its own.

• Go to Start > Run (or Windows-key + "R"), type in "regedit" and hit "OK".

 

 

• Navigate to the key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \TrayNotify"

 

 

• Delete the values "IconStreams" and "PastIconsStream"

 

 

• Now open up the Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), go to the "Processes" tab, select "explorer.exe" and click "End Process"

 

 

• Now open the "Applications" tab and click "New Task..." at the bottom-right of the window.
  
  

 

• In the message box that pops up type in "explorer.exe" and hit "OK"

 

 

• Explorer.exe will reload, and that's it! The missing icons should now be back in the system-tray where they belong.

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Taskbar Blocked By Administrator | How To Fix

Taskbar Blocked By Administrator | How To Fix

By   10:21   No comments:

A task manager is a program used to provide information about the processes and programs running on a computer, as well as the general status of the computer. It can also be used to terminate processes and programs, as well as change the processes priority. In some environments, users can access a task manager by pressing the buttons Control-Alt-Delete.

Task managers can display currently running services (processes) as well as those that were stopped. They can display information about the services (such as Process ID and group) if known.

Task Manager will be the first target for some of the viruses so that the user can not look into the tasks that are running (normally the tasks that require more Memory. Disabling Task Manager is one way of viruses that try to make it harder for you to deal with their infections.

Even if you have anti-virus installed, you can still be infected by a new or custom virus that is not recognized by your anti-virus. Sometimes after removing the virus completely from our system, you’ll face new problems such as you can no longer bring up Windows Task Manager (CTRL+ALT+DEL).

And if you try to bring the Task Manager Up, you will get the error message saying “Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator”. This post will help you to re-enable the Windows Task Manager as long as it cannot open normally. Just follow these steps.

Before proceeding any further, you should run a complete and up-to-date anti-virus scan of your machine. If you have not installed any Anti Virus in your System, we commend to use Microsoft Security Essentials.

Microsoft Security Essentials is the name of Microsoft’s latest Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware software for Windows operating system. It is already being tested internally at Microsoft and was launch in September last year.

It’s possible, perhaps even likely, that you’ve been infected. Once you come back virus-free, you can proceed with the fix. Usually when you try to run taskmgr.exe manually, you get this message:

If you have Windows XP, Click Start, then click Run and type in gpedit.msc and press OK.

Once in the Group Policy Editor, expand in turn:

• User Configuration
• Administrative Templates
• System
• Ctrl+Alt+Del Options

You should see something much like this:

Double Click on Remove Task Manager to change its setting:

Click on Not Configured and then OK and Task Manager is available once again.

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Change Priority Of Running Processes In Windows 7

Change Priority Of Running Processes In Windows 7

By   23:53   No comments:

Ever since Vista I have not been able to set my priority or Affinity to running jobs / processes.  I play games mostly on my PC but it is getting old, and so I wanted to increase the priority of my game (civilization 4) to high or real-time (it is currently defaulting to below normal).  Unfortunately every time I go into task manager and try to set either priority or affinity, no matter what I select, it says "operation could not be completed Access denied" then goes back to normal. How do I change this?

Normally changing priority for any process is only per session - when you kill process and restart it again priority will be restored to original. If you want to save  priority on constant you have to use any special software to do that.

Process priority will not be permanent without a 3rd party application adjusting . Access Denied error occurs while attempting to change the priority with the task manager with normal procedure. Third party software does address this issue.

For Example:
Special plugin for task manager

• Prio: http://www.prnwatch.com/prio.html
• Process Lasso: http://www.bitsum.com/prolasso.php

(both above programs are free)

I know also Ashampoo Core Tuner: >http://www2.ashampoo.com/webcache/html/1/product_2_0061___USD.htm

but this program is commercial.

You can also refer to the following support article to permanently set process priority in Windows Task Manager: How to Permanently Set Process Priority in Windows Task Manager?

http://www.askvg.com/how-to-permanently-set-process-priority-in-windows-task-manager/

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Rundll32.exe Goes To Max CPU Usage

Rundll32.exe Goes To Max CPU Usage

By   21:21   No comments:

I've had this problem for a while now. Sometimes when attempting to start games (not really games, also applies to certain programs), I'll see the game's executable load, along with rundll32.exe. However that's where it stops, and Rundll goes on to hog an entire core's CPU time to itself, without the game continuing to load.

Sometimes the problem goes away after a few tries, sometimes I'm forced to actually reinstall the game. Heck, the solution is sometimes totally random, I've had the problem temporarily solved once by running DirectX setup, but that only solved it for one specific game.

When I check the taskmanager, and the commandline for rundll, here's what I get:
C:\Windows\system32\rundll32.exe C:\Windows\system32\gameux.dll,GameUXShim {029de72b-57a0-4780-aeba-a7d553e82745};D:\Program Files\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\PlayOnlineViewer\pol.exe;3972 now I know gameux.dll has something to do with the game explorer, the second part is the game executable in question, in this case Playonline, but I've had it with other games as well.

It sounds like Final Fantasy XI is somehow incompatible with Windows 7 at this stage. I'd try configuring the game to run in compatibility mode for Windows XP or Windows Vista. To do this, right click on the program .exe and open the Properties menu, then navigate to the compatibility tab and select "Run this program in compatibility mode for..." Failing that, you may want to seek support on the official forums, as we can't really support individual games here.

And compatibility mode doesn't work for all games or software's, I've tried that before. Other games that have had this problem are for example Civilisation IV and Railroad Tycoon 3.

Solution From Technet:

Here is a temporary solution: Believe it or not, I've fixed the problem for now by instructing the game explorer not to collect game usage data. Since I did that I haven't had this problem. So it leads me to suspect that the game explorer is in it on something. Judging from my experience with programming, I'm thinking when trying to launch a game, gameux.dll is called first to perform certain tasks (in this case perhaps a +1 on the game usage counter if asked to keep tabs), after which the DLLs of the game executable are loaded (that's what Rundll is for, loading DLLs).

But I think when loading and executing one function from the game explorer's DLL, rundll ends up in an endless loop internally (hence the max usage of 1 core). Since I've instruced the game explorer now to have as little to do as possible with the games as possible, not keeping tabs on usage, not downloading updates, etc etc, gameux.dll is probably loaded but not used, and rundll goes on nicely to loading the other DLLs.
Well that's my idea at least, built from experience in programming.

I've found this solution to work every time:

• Kill the game's *.exe process, leaving rundll32.exe still running (SysInternals' procexp64.exe or procexp.exe show the process tree better than Task Manager, so it's worth downloading SysInternals Suite if you haven't already got it.  You'll see rundll32.exe as a sub-branch of the *.exe for the game.  Or, to put it another way, if you're not sure what the game's *.exe is called, it's the one above the rundll32.exe thread that's hogging all the CPU power!)
• Restart the game.
• Kill the rundll32.exe thread (or suspend it if you're at all a bit doubtful)

I just wanted to point out that it's safe to kill the rundll32.exe thread after the successful restart of the game.  This stops it hogging all that CPU power while you play - more performance, less heat.

As to the cause, I'm even more mystified than before.  I've tried the Game Explorer fixes and that seemed to work.  BuT one one machine, it works now for the Admin User (me and the 'serious work stuff') but not for the Guest User (games only).  Both users now have identical settings in Games Explorer but the Guest is locked off the internet, so maybe I have to connect and start each game once in that user.

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Windows 7 Task Manager Has Lost Its Header Tabs

Windows 7 Task Manager Has Lost Its Header Tabs

By   23:26   No comments:

Somehow the task manager has lost the header tabs to move from applications to processes to network. It was there originally.

I also lose from time to time my volume control icon, and it doesn't become hidden, it just disappears completely. To change the volume I have to either go into the control panel/sound and then adjust the volume and leave that open if I need to turn it down. OR reboot and it sometimes comes back.

When I go to 'notification Icons" in control panel the icon and lettering for sound icon is not bold or high lighted but instead it is diminished. I have also seen a popup stating that modification will take affect when it (the sound) is activated as a pop up, but can't remember where I saw that happen.

Solution:

Double click on the edge of Task Manager.

http://i338.photobucket.com/albums/n410/stone_cold_05/TaskManager.png

---- Norton AntiVirus 2009

In addition to the above mentioned solution, you can open the Notification Area Icons control panel item and you can try clicking the "Restore default icon behavior" link near the bottom of the window and see if that fixes the MIA volume control.

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Enable Or Disable Task Scheduler And Task History In Windows

Enable Or Disable Task Scheduler And Task History In Windows

By   21:40   No comments:

Task History in the Task Scheduler is Disabled: When you cant see any Task history in your task manager, it probably mean that your tasks are not running.. and which in fact mean that your tasks are disabled. If so, what to do to re enable your scheduled tasks. On the "History" tab for each of the them, it will give a message that "History (disabled)". How does one enable history tracking for the tasks.

If you want to enable history in task manager, you have to enable your tasks. And this is how you have to enable. On the able screen shot, Look at the window at the right under "Actions" and you will see an entry to enable all task history.

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Enable And Disable Task Manager In Windows

Enable And Disable Task Manager In Windows

By   12:00   No comments:

When you try to open Task Manager, the following error may occur:

Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator

This error is caused if the DisableTaskMgr restriction is enabled. To enable Task Manager, try one of these methods:

IMPORTANT: If this restriction was enabled in your system without you doing anything or without your knowledge, then it's highly likely that a Virus has blocked the usage of Task Manager in your system by enabling the DisableTaskMgr policy via the registry. I strongly suggest that you perform a thorough checkup of your system immediately. Steps listed in the Resolution section of this article helps you unblock the Task Manager, but that does not remove the Virus (if any) from your system.

Method 1

Click Start, Run and type this command exactly as given below: (better - Copy and paste)

Method 2

Download and run this REG fix and double-click it.

Method 3

• Click Start, Run and type Regedit.exe (for windows vista and windows 7 users, just click start and type regedit.exe in the start menu search and hit enter).
• Navigate to the following branch:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies\ System

• In the right-pane, delete the value named DisableTaskMgr
• Close Regedit.exe

Method 4: Using Group Policy Editor - for Windows XP Professional

• Click Start, Run, type gpedit.msc and click OK.
• Navigate to this branch:

User Configuration / Administrative Templates / System / Ctrl+Alt+Delete Options / Remove Task Manager

• Double-click the Remove Task Manager option.
• Set the policy to Not Configured.

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Optimize Your Computer Using Task Manager.

Optimize Your Computer Using Task Manager.

By   12:50   No comments:

Is your computer running slow? does your system responding to your actions much slower?  A simple fix is to open up task manager

• In Windows XP: Ctrl + Alt + Del
• In Windows Vista and Windows 7: Ctrl + Alt + Del then select task manager

And in all three OS's You can right-click the task bar and choose "Task Manager"

Once the task manager is open navigate to "Applications" the programs you are using are located here, these are user-programs, these are all located in the task bar as well, close any thing you arnt using, by clicking "End Task."

After closing unnecessary programs navigate to the "Processes" tab. Click the "memory" column button until it displays programs in descending order of memory usage.

The top one will always be a browser, game, or editor. That's just the nature of the beast.

How ever messengers take up lots of memory too, even if you arnt signed in, the try i con can kill you, for instance, my AIM is using 11,000K of memory, or 11 megabytes, and im not even signed in, so let's kill that one. You can end processes by clicking "End Process"

Once locating the programs and ending the ones that are causing lots of trouble and making your speeds slow, you will notice that your machine speeds up, the next logical step is to go through you start up registry and deleting them. 

While this works, it's only a temporary fix. The processes will all run again next time you boot up your computer. So it's good only if you need a quick boost in speed.

 
A better idea would be to remove unnecessary items from your Startup menu.

Start -> Run -> msconfig -> Startup

 
Things like iTunes Helper, iPod Helper, Google Update etc. are completely useless, yet are using your memory at all times. 

To know more about how to fix this permanently. Read my previous article...

• Disable Extra Startup Programs In Windows

• Modify the Boot Manager configuration In Windows 7 And Windows Vista To Setup Multi Boot

• Removing Icons from the System Tray

• Disable Un-Used Services In Windows To Speed Up Windows

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