Tray icon disappears whenever Windows Explorer is restarted

[Steve Magruder]

Note that this issue doesn't happen with almost all Windows apps I use, so it must be some kind of bug.

I have CCleaner set to maintain a tray icon that is persistent whether or not I am engaging with the user interface.

Every now and then, I have a need to restart Windows Explorer, whether by me manually restarting it in Task Manager, or there's an app installation that automatically does the restart.

Upon restarting Windows Explorer, CCleaner's tray icon disappears and doesn't come back. Re-launching CCleaner (e.g. double-clicking a desktop shortcut) doesn't even bring it back. I have to go into the Task Manager, end CCleaner's task, then re-launch CCleaner to get the tray icon back.

CCleaner version: 5.77.8521 (64-bit)

Windows version: Windows 10 Home Version 21H1 (Beta Channel), Build 19043.867, Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.3030.0.

[nukecad]

1 hour ago, Steve Magruder said:

I have CCleaner set to maintain a tray icon that is persistent whether or not I am engaging with the user interface.

How are you setting it to do that?

There are a few different ways it can be done.

[Steve Magruder]

The two settings that seem to be related to this, both checked, are:

1) Settings: Launch the CCleaner app window each time the computer starts

2) Advanced: Minimize to System Tray

[nukecad]

Fine, there are 2 further option that also put an icon in the System Tray -  'Keep CCleaner updated automatically' and 'Smart Cleaning'.
You don't say if you are using those?

'Launch the CCleaner app window each time the computer starts' simply runs a clean on startup.
It does put a flashing icon in the system tray, but only briefly while it cleans, it doesn't leave it there.

Regarding your second setting 'Minimize to system tray'. That is a legacy command for older Windows versions.
As you have Win10 then I suggest that you untick that and instead pin CCleaner to the taskbar.
Open File Explorer navigate to C:/Program Files/CCleaner and right-click on ccleaner64.exe
In the menu that pops up click on Pin to taskbar.
That puts an icon on your taskbar so that you can launch CCleaner with a single click. That icon will survive a Windows Explorer restart.
You will still also see a second icon in the System Tray as long as Automatic updating and/or Smart Cleaning is running in the background.

Restarting Windows Explorer will kill the Automatic Updating task, and/or the Smart Cleaning task, and so remove the System Tray icon, and there is no trigger to restart them in those circumstances.

Automatic updating is triggered to start/check for updates on startup and then every 12 hrs.
So it would eventually come back on it's own 12hrs after you last booted or last opened CCleaner.
Smart Cleaning is triggered to start/check for junk on startup and remain running checking for junk buildup or a browser close.

You can restart either/both manually it by simply opening and closing CCleaner, no need to do anything else just open/close.

It should be possible to use Task Scheduler to set an advanced trigger to restart either task automatically if it fails, but I'm not sure that restarting Windows Explorer deliberately would count as the task 'failing' - and it's easy enough just to open/close CCleaner after restarting Windows Explorer, or simply ignore that it's not running until next time you boot or launch CCleaner.

[Steve Magruder]

I just cleared this up today when I found out the specific app that was interfering with other icons in the system tray.

The problem is with TaskbarX and its Extra setting "Show Tray icon" - it was clobbering PowerToys' tray icon every time and interfering with CCleaner's and other apps' tray icons off and on. This issue has been logged with the TaskbarX development team here - I didn't create it but I added info to it after being alerted to it in a PowerToys issue.

As for the system tray, whether it's legacy or not, it's certainly used by many apps and seems the appropriate location for a utility or app that tends to run mostly in the background. I'm not going to stop using it because of a bug caused by one errant app. And I like it. :)~

The bottom line is that CCleaner seems to have no issue here. Thanks for your patience!

[Steve Magruder]

Oops, I confused this issue with another one affecting CCleaner. The CCleaner tray icon still doesn't come back after Windows Explorer is restarted, along with icons from 3 other apps.  Well, at least the main problem I had with it disappearing has been fixed.

[Nergal]

20 minutes ago, Steve Magruder said:

Oops, I confused this issue with another one affecting CCleaner. The CCleaner tray icon still doesn't come back after Windows Explorer is restarted, along with icons from 3 other apps.  Well, at least the main problem I had with it disappearing has been fixed.

That's a windows flaw I think. Happens for nvidia control panel on mine

[Steve Magruder]

7 minutes ago, Nergal said:

That's a windows flaw I think. Happens for nvidia control panel on mine

I tend to think it's a flaw of the app (as minor a flaw it is) as when I restart Windows Explorer, 22 out of 26 tray icons come back. But it's possible Windows makes it difficult to maintain the icon under this circumstance.

Edited August 30, 2021 by Steve Magruder
I forgot to include tray icons that aren't hidden