I find it is finicky all the time.
Sometimes I mark an item to show all the time then after a few reboots the icon disappears and when I check its setting is back to Hide when inactive.
I have to agree 100%. And I thought it was just a "local" problem!!!
davey
P.S. My chevron comes and goes and sometimes is replaced for awhile with a "blank" square spot if you know what I mean.
After a day or two everything settles down until I play around with the tray area again for testing reasons.
Once it is settled then I use the save settings VBS from Doug Knox.
I think when I was using SP3 beta the tray icons were stacked 2-up.