Re: Inconsistent loading of Systray programs

"KenV" wrote

Has anyone figured out yet why various programs in the Startup group which should end up in the Systray sometimes load and sometimes do not? There is no particular pattern to this, although some programs fail to load more often than others.

For example, Windows Live OneCare has a service connected with it, and about a third of the time I cold boot the computer OneCare doesn't start, gives me a message that the service hasn't started, and I have to go to Services and start it manually. This isn't a problem, but it is an inconvenience. (The OneCare Live support people tell me to go through the process of disabling all the startup programs and non-Microsoft services and add them in, one by one to see which one is interfering. Besides being cumbersome and tedious, this process probably wouldn't solve a problem that is somewhat random.)

There are other programs that don't load from time to time, but they are different each time. I may have from 5 to 10 program icons in the SysTray on any given boot.

How do you troubleshoot an issue like this? Or is it just something that is characteristic of XP?

It's an issue of the combination of programs that are loading and the timing of them. It can vary from boot to boot, so that's why you see the problems occurring at different times.

Here is a link to a thread about startup order for programs/services. See the post by Wesley Vogel. It is a very interwoven process.

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/browse_frm/thread/2f02098842fd24e1/c4cef0ccf8b94c88?lnk=st&q=&rnum=1&hl=en#c4cef0ccf8b94c88

One thing to try is to wait longer at the Welcome Screen before logging into the computer. I have one system where if I don't wait long enough the 3rd party firewall service, Kerio PF, won't load, and it has to be started manually after login. After waiting at the login screen (using the classic login rather than the welcome screen) for about 30 seconds or so the wait hourglass pops up, disappears, pops up again a few seconds later and then disappears for the final time. Logging in after that results in all services loading as they should.

Another thing to try is to disable one or both of these services from Start | Run | Services.msc:
SSDP Discovery Service
UPnp Service

If neither of these things resolve the issue then the next step is clean boot troubleshooting to see if the you can pinpoint where the problem lies. Then comes the issue of how to resolve it.

Clean Boot Troubleshooting

How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560

How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=316434

How to perform a clean boot in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310353

--
Rock [MVP - User/Shell]

.

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