Since Today's MS Security Updates, Tray Icons Missing

I was using Avira Antivirus and PC Tools Firewall when the Microsoft XP security updates came through today. Ever since I restarted my system after those updates, all my tray icons are slow to appear (including the network connection icon and its message that it's been established), but the Avira and PC Tools Firewall icons don't show at all on cold boot or warm boot. I was going to uninstall and reinstall both programs to see if that helped, but I decided to go with Panda Cloud Antivirus after seeing that was the pick of your list of AV programs.

When I uninstalled and reinstalled PC Tools Firewall, the tray icon appeared...until I restarted after uninstalling Avira. Upon restart, the firewall icon was again gone. When I installed Panda Cloud Antivirus, its tray icon appeared and has remained in the tray on all reboots.

I saw upon startup listed in task manager the process "WGAtray.exe," which I have read via Google search can't be shut down without losing MS updates. I have never seen that on the process list previously, though, so I think that's my problem's culprit.

Do you have any suggestions?

Okay...I just had unresponsive mouse/keyboard as my tower made a lot of processor (I think?) noise. I thought that would stop when I switched from Avira to Panda Cloud.

Now, I'm officially annoyed. Please, help if you can.

Thanks,

 

WGAtray.exe is Windows Genuine Advantage. It is a legitimate Windows process

This means that they aren't automatically being started.

• Have they been disabled?
• Are they still fully functional if you were to launch them from the Desktop or Start Menu instead?
• Is it possible you have contracted malware?

Note: This has been known to trigger wgatray.exe (even though windows prod key is legit)
Are you receiving notifications that your Windows product is not genuine / counterfeit?

• Are both PS2 devices?
• Does plugging in a USB keyboard/mouse when the PS2 components become unresponsive help at all?

 

Yeah, I know that, but it also is known to slow a computer due to taking things to 100%. There has to be a solution to that!

Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot to mention that they were showing in Task Manager, just not in the tray. In fact, PC Tools firewall, now that I uninstalled/reinstalled it, is asking lots of questions because it's relearning things.

Nope.

Both are USB devices. Whenever that happens, it's a matter of memory; or it could be a matter of FreeRamXP going through its freeing process. When it's doing that, all other applications, etc. are pretty much unavailable. I forgot about that, too. When I was typing my post, the FreeRamXP tray icon was hidden, as well. As I'm typing this reply, it's visible, and the freeing process just ran. That reminded me of the halting of processes it causes. OOPS.

I have attached a screencap of the Task Manager window, so you can see that PC Tools firewall is running, even though the icon isn't showing in the system tray. The Panda Cloud icon shows just fine.

Thank you for your help!

 

Could it be that the TrayNotify has been corrupted due to Windows Update? I believe to have read that it could be due to updates to NetFramework 2? Not sure though and can't find the site anymore!

Did some googling and found this that could restore all icons, can't find the site either anymore:

Haven't tried it myself because all my icons are showing. Use at your own risk.

 

http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp
Under "Other Options" select View Installation History

What are the latest batch of updates listed? example:

Code:

KB2560656
KB2536276