I run xp pro and sometimes the OS (I presume) will "hiccup", all the screen
icons disappear and all I see is the desktop background, then very quickly the
screen icons reappear, but only about half of my normal 20 or so tray icons
are restored. What can I do to stop this from happening as I have to
reboot to get my tray icons back.

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Request for Question Clarification by hummer-ga on 21 May 2005 15:02 PDT

Hi nathummel,

Here are a few things to try:

1) regedit.exe

"I think you'll find it's explorer.exe crashing. What to do about it? Well,
not a lot really but there's a solution if you want to try it:
Start the registry editor (regedit.exe).
Navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer.
From the Edit menu, select New-DWORD Value.
Enter a name of DesktopProcess, and press Enter.
Double-click the new value, set it to 1, and click OK.
Log off your Windows session, then log on.
That will run the desktop in a separate instance which will prevent it from
giving you these problems hopefully."
http://forums.wugnet.com/Basics-Losing-Tray-Icons-ftopict371876.html

2) Device Manager 

"Check if any errors are showing in Device Manager
Right click My Computer / Properties / Hardware / Device Manager.
Look for "Yellow" errors especially at video card. Right click on it
/Properties and check out what it says about the driver."
http://discussions.virtualdr.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=170874

3) sfc /scannow

"Get your WinXP CD handy, then go to Start>Run and type "sfc /scannow"
without the quotes. That'll replace any missing or corrupt system
files. It will often fix that particular problem."
http://discussions.virtualdr.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=170874

4) kellys-korner registry edits

"Icons are missing or disappear, reappear: This generally happens for
most Auto-Logon users.
Methods/workarounds: Log off and Log back on, password protect your
account or disable SSDP and uPNP Services.
Disable SSDP and uPNP Services (Line 156)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
Or if you are running XP SP1 uninstall UPnP from Add/Remove Windows Components.
Hide or Show Inactive Icons in the Notification Area (Line 53)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
Remove Past Items From the Notification Area (Line 53)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
Once done, Open Task Manager, click the Processes tab, click
Explorer.exe, and then click End Process. In Task Manager, click File,
click New Task, type explorer, and then click OK."
http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com/windowsxp/articles/569/1/Windows-XP-FAQ-N

5) High-Contrast Color Themes

Icons in the Notification Area May Disappear If You Use High-Contrast
Color Themes in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q321213

Will look forward to your update,
hummer

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Clarification of Question by nathummel-ga on 22 May 2005 14:51 PDT

1.) Re registry value, I must have checked/done that at sometime as
the value of 1 already exists at the registry address shown.
2.) There are no error messages/yellow thingies on my device manager
3.) I'm in the middle of sfc /scannow at the moment, it's taking a
long time, and I'll post again if there are any outdated/corrupted
files.  I wonder, though, if you have sp2 will that conflict with the
original windows cd?
4.) This Kelley's Korner is involved. I'll check on it later when I have more time.
5.) I have no idea what a "high contrast" color theme is. Ooops, now I
see, there are actual color themes named "high contrast." No, I just
have windows classic.

p.s. The sfc just ended without any error messages or messages of any type.

Frankly, I was hoping there was one "easy" thing that caused this, but
it looks like it could be more than one thing.

Nat

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Request for Question Clarification by hummer-ga on 22 May 2005 16:09 PDT

Hi Nat,

Hmmm, hopefully Kelly's Korner will help, but if not, I think it would
be a good idea to run some scans, just to make sure all is well.

1) HouseCall (online virus scan - do this one even if you regularly
use something else)
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

2) Ad-aware (sypware scan - "check for updates" before running)
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

Good luck!
hummer