WinXP Pro - Disappearing Tray Icons

[lino]

WinXP Pro - 6 months with hardly a problem.

Recently, while simply opening a folder in WinExplorer, suffered a major crash - completely frozen for 15 mins+. Switched off and rebooted.

Now, on Win start, with desktop fully displayed, am getting the error message 'Shell_NotifyIcon Fail'. Click 'OK' and all appears well, but only 2 (out of 10) icons are shown in the SysTray, there's a small yellow question mark in a grey box at the extreme top left of screen, and there's an icon for 'MXUIShell.MXE' on the desktop. XP also not properly behaving (e.g. can't auto-hide the Taskbar, and other small annoyances). Tried using Fix-It Utils to fix the registry but no difference.

Any ideas? Cheers.

[mjc]

One thing that might be worth trying is to find a file called ShellIconCache and then delete it.

[jabarnutcase]

lino-
Not sure what "fix it utils" you tried, but have you tried booting into safe mode and choosing "Last known good configuration"
Or possibly your system restore option? (If it's enabled)

Also, if you have the original XP CD, you could try running it and at the "welcome to set-up" screen (Enter) you can choose the repair option to repair or replace files that may have become corrupted.
Good luck

[lino]

Tried all suggestions in vain - thanks. Was told that the file 'MXUIShell.MXE' is related to prog 'MXEdit' for a remote control (which I don't have). Then found that another user had installed a prog called DivX Alpha (possible link to MXEdit?). Uninstalled DivX, cleaned registry, and all OK again.