Hi,
those problems often appeared in WIN 7. I have an old Laptop with WIndows 7 (32 bit) on it for my old astronomy programs.
I kept on this laptop a registry script called "System Tray cleanup" which I found on the net longtime ago.
I have opened it in Notepad and can copy the script here. It contains, in addition to the "resetting of the notification area" mentionned above, some additional registry "hacks". I do not think, it can do any harm.
PLEASE make a (registry) BACKUP however.
Copy the following text into Notepad and save it as "System Tray cleanup" for instance and save it not as a ".txt file", but as a ".reg file" (with the .reg extension). It will then show a green icon. Then run the script.
Here is the text:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\TrayNotify]
"PastIconsStream"=-
"IconStreams"=-
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoSaveSettings"=-
"NoTrayItemsDisplay"=-
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoSaveSettings"=-
"NoTrayItemsDisplay"=-
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"DisableTaskMgr"=-
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ShellServiceObjectDelayLoad]
"SysTray"="{35CEC8A3-2BE6-11D2-8773-92E220524153}"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"DisableLocalUserRun"=-
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
"SystemTray"=-
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Good luck (but no guarantee)
Roger