I have a problem win XP with icons randomly not showing on the system tray at startup.

The programs that cause me trouble are POW! (a popup killer by AnalogX) and Girder (for my remote control). Both these programs are launched from Common Startup (All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup).

Also, the icon for Creative AudioHQ will sometimes appear and sometimes not. Sometimes the icon for IE New Window Maximiser appears, but it should NEVER appear because I have it set to stealth mode!

Sometimes I get all four of these icons, sometimes half of them, sometimes none of them. It seems pretty random to me.

Maybe the system tray isn't ready before these programs are launched so they can't add their icons?

Please could anyone help us with this issue? It's driving me spare!

You did not mention having done:

Do you have a little arrow button at the left hand side of the System Tray (XP calls it the
Notification Area) ??

If so, click it to show hidden icons.

If you want all icons to show,
right click the Taskbar,
then Properties,
then uncheck "Hide Inactive Icons".

Or click the Customize button, and set what you want to hide or not.

I've already tried all built-in functionalities but they don't help. I have never used "hide inactive icons" since I started using XP two years ago because I prefer to see all my icons at a glance. This problem has never occurred until now and it seems very intermittent; sometimes all the icons appear and sometimes as many as three or four are missing.

Icons that always appear (all HKLM\Software\...\Run):
Norton Antivirus
Norton Personal Firewall
Local Area Connection
Safely Remove Hardware
Motherboard Monitor (2 icons)

Icons that sometimes disappear:
DAEMON-Tools (HKLM\Software\...\Run)
Girder (Common Startup)
AnalogX POW! (Common Startup)
Creative AudioHQ (HKLM\Software\...\Run)

If I log out and log back in again I get all of icons back - it's only when I restart the system that any don't appear.

Could it be something to do with one of the latest security updates? I've heard many people people complain about new bugs being introduced with these updates.