I have had a long standing issue with the taskbar and systray. I found I could not restart without losing all the settings: hide icons, even the icon images were messed up. I could manually reset everything and create a restore point. At that time, I COULD do a complete shut down and restart, and the correct configuration would reestablish. Now none of that works at all. I have an issue with an uninstall on AVG, I cannot install the new version until the old is removed. I did a reboot, but have to go back to old restore points to have a functioning systray. I've read the posts on the registry settings, and my registry shows the correct settings. Can I delete the key altogether and XP will rebuild it? I never heard of that for the registry. This problem seems likely related to SP2. I hate SP2, but certain things on my system will not run without it. Thanks for anything to try.

For the Taskbar problem, go here: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_... and run number 164 You said "I have an issue with an uninstall on AVG, I cannot install the new version until the old is removed. I did a reboot, but have to go back to old restore points to have a functioning systray." What does one have to do with the other? Have you removed AVG through Add/Remove programs? "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown

AVG continues to tell me that Windows has marked a file for deletion upon restart. It cannot finish uninstall or new install until this is accomplished. I did run the uninstall in Control Panel. It just has not finished. Even now, I do not think a "restart" gets the file to delete, but until I can have a working systray, I cannot debug that problem as it is not safe to restart or shut down the computer. Nothing will reset to original settings, and even manual adjustments do not make it "hide icons", etc. In order to restore the functional systray, I am forced to use a prior restore point. I need to be able to restart the computer without messing up the systray.

Did you try Jennifer's suggestion in Response #1?