Windows 7 I can't set notification area preferences any more!

[glugglug]

Seems to have happened after installing the last Windows Live Essentials & Microsoft Search Enhancement Pack updates from Windows Update.

If I right click the system tray and go to properties, then check "Customize notification icons" it shows everything set to "Only show notifications" and my ability to change it is disabled even though I am an administrator. Previously I had the "Always show all icons and notifications on the taskbar" option checked. (See attached screenshot).

Anyone know how to fix this?

Oh, and my "All Programs" menu option is still broken. Really don't want to reinstall or create a new user, it is a big pain to get everything set right, especially the QAM cable channels -- Windows media center finds only 6 channels on a scan, while both WinTV (since version 7 came out) and BeyondTV both find around 65 unencrypted. Media Center has the best interface once they are added by far, but it is a big pain to add all the channels manually.

 

[reghakr]

It's a long shot, but try this registry script:

Copy and paste the info inside the quote into Notepad, choose Save As, then select All Files from the drop-down menu box and type in enableautotray.reg. Make sure to set encoding to ANSI. Save it to your desktop and double-click on it to merge it intro the registry.

NOTE:It's CurrentVersion, not Curre ntVersion.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]
"EnableAutoTray"=dword:00000000

You'll need to shutdown and restart your computer.

 

[glugglug]

That key is already set to 0. It shows all the icons at startup but whenever explorer crashes it comes back with a little more than half.

 

[reghakr]

Let's step back a little.......

In your other post you stated you had an Administrator account. Did you enable the hidden "global" administrative account or are you simply referring to an account with Administrative privileges?

Is your regular user account a limited account?

Have you tried choosing Turn system icons on or off and set the Action Center to Off?

If that fails, open Regedit and navigate to HKEY_USERS\YOUR SID
#\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\StuckRects2 and delete the Settings entry.

Now navigate to HKEY_USERS\YOUR SID#\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify and delete the PasticonsStreams and IconStreams entries.

If you're using the "true Administartor account, the SID will end in 500, the account you want to select has 4 numbers at the end

Other than that, I would uninstall Live Essentials and see if you get it back.

 

[glugglug]

Let's step back a little.......

In your other post you stated you had an Administrator account. Did you enable the hidden "global" administrative account or are you simply referring to an account with Administrative privileges?

I use mainly the glugglug user account which has Administrative privileges. With the Administrator account, both the notification area preferences and the All Programs menu still work.

Have you tried choosing Turn system icons on or off and set the Action Center to Off?

No, will have to try this...

 

[glugglug]

ok, finding more and more wackiness here.....

After finding the TrayNotify and StuckRects2 keys to rename those values (the paths don't match exactly), and logging out and back in again, there is no change on the tray icons, but it is prompting me to restart windows for the changes to take effect. Looking in regedit, I see that when I logged out & logged back in, it recreated the keys with the same values they had before.

Also, another big difference from previous versions of Windows I noticed, under HKEY_USERS I can only see the following keys (and children):

.DEFAULT
S-1-5-18
S-1-5-19
S-1-5-20
<current UID key>
<current UID key_Classes>

I can't see the UID key for Administrator when logged in as glugglug, or vice-versa.

There is no problem turning system icons on & off, but how do you turn off Action Center? (or do you just mean the icon?)

 

[reghakr]

<current UID key>

S-1-5-18
S-1-5-19
S-1-5-20

These are reserved so don't mess with them

All SID numbers are unique.

You will not find the 500 account unless you have enabled the hidden Administartive account

Is your current UID key something like this:
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-4061621919-1254611917-3314822544-1001

You turn the Action Center off by going to Control panel > Notification Area Icons, click the Turn system icons on and off and set Action Center to off.

As I stated earlier you need to restart rather than just logging off.

You could try the HKEY_CURRENT_USER branch to delete (not rename) the entries I mentioned.

 

[jgudnas]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

set
NoAutoTrayNotify to 0