Windows XP taskbar icons disappearing?

Here's a great fix for any time where some of your icons are missing from your Windows XP system tray (AKA notification area) at startup. What you need to do is make sure that Universal Plug and Play Device Host is set to start Automatically at startup. Do this by:

1. Start > Run > services.msc
2. Right-click Universal Plug and Play Device Host, choose Properties
3. Change Startup Type to Automatic
   
   
4. Click OK
5. Log off, then log back on (no need to reboot completely)

To test this out before you log off and back on, see if the service is even running. In my case, the service was NOT running, and so I clicked the blue Start link in the upper left. Then, since my Sound icon is one of the icons that went missing, I went into the Control Panel, opened up the Sound properties, then disabled and enabled the Sound icon. What happened? The sound icon actually showed up and stayed put this time.

Did this work for you?