Other System Tray Icons constantly having to activate after apps update.

Question

Other System Tray Icons constantly having to activate after apps update.

Parker Ketring 20

Every time I have an app update that provides a Taskbar Tray Icon in the bottom right of the screen, the Icon is hidden through a "^" menu/window. I utilize those icons constantly to open and manage those apps that use an "Other System Tray Icon". Every single time an app updates, the icon for it is pushed to be hidden in this menu. It's an extra step to open the window and right-click, etc., so every single time that happens, I have to go into settings and activate the icon to show on the taskbar.

Is there a way to permanently have "Other System Tray Icons" remain in the taskbar even after an app updates?

This is the part of the taskbar area in question:

Screenshot 2025-10-27

Thank you!

Shchochkin, Danylo 0 Reputation points

2026-07-03T13:55:01.52+00:00

I face the same problem with Claude. I think it's general problem for all MSIX-apps. After update they have a different path containing version, so treated by tray collapser as a new app.

It's just very annoying to do every time after each update. Think of thousands of apps and millions of users doing this regularly..

I am not sure who should take care about it. MSIX-app installer team can to example inspect other app versions registry to set initial value of EnableAutoTray for a newly installed app. Or tray component can use a better mechanics, so that different version of the same app (do they all have the same app ID?) share single setting somewhere.

Please do something. Report where it's more appropriate.
Lychee-Ng 26,855 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-06T06:11:06.9933333+00:00

Hi Shchochkin, Danylo, unfortunately Microsoft Q&A is just user-to-user forum so this is not really a suitable place for request, since it's unlikely to reach the development teams. The appropriate escalation path is Microsoft official feedback channel: you can press Win + F. Share your idea and screenshots if possible, also look in Feedback Hub for similar posts and upvote them!

Answer accepted by question author

0 additional answers

Your answer

Shchochkin, Danylo 0 Reputation points

2026-07-03T13:55:01.52+00:00

I face the same problem with Claude. I think it's general problem for all MSIX-apps. After update they have a different path containing version, so treated by tray collapser as a new app.

It's just very annoying to do every time after each update. Think of thousands of apps and millions of users doing this regularly..

I am not sure who should take care about it. MSIX-app installer team can to example inspect other app versions registry to set initial value of EnableAutoTray for a newly installed app. Or tray component can use a better mechanics, so that different version of the same app (do they all have the same app ID?) share single setting somewhere.

Please do something. Report where it's more appropriate.
Lychee-Ng 26,855 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-06T06:11:06.9933333+00:00

Hi Shchochkin, Danylo, unfortunately Microsoft Q&A is just user-to-user forum so this is not really a suitable place for request, since it's unlikely to reach the development teams. The appropriate escalation path is Microsoft official feedback channel: you can press Win + F. Share your idea and screenshots if possible, also look in Feedback Hub for similar posts and upvote them!

Answer 1

Hi Parker Ketring,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

Windows 11 treats updated apps as “new” executables, so their tray icon visibility resets to default every time. Currently, there’s no official way to persist it across app updates. But you can force this behavior with an advanced workaround, which is powerful but potentially risky:

Press Win + R > type regedit > press Enter to open Registry Editor
Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
Find and right-click Explorer > Add a new DWORD (32-bit) Value:
1. Name it: EnableAutoTray
2. Set its value to: 0
Restart the PC and see if it takes effect. If the issue persists, go back to the key.
Double-click EnableAutoTray and reset its value data to 1 this time
Press Win + R > paste explorer shell:::{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9} > OK
If it opens the old Notification Area Icons window, check the box for Always show all…

Disclaimer: Generally, modifying registry subkeys or work group is intended for advanced users, administrators, and IT Professionals. It can help fix some problems, however, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For further protection, first check out How to back up and restore the registry in Windows - Microsoft Support

In the unfortunate case that even the advanced workaround is not available in Windows 11 anymore, you might have to accept the limitation and continue with the manual way. But instead of going into settings and turning them on, you can drag and drop the icon straight from the hidden box to the taskbar to pin, which will help you skip the troublesome steps: User's image

In addition, if you're ok with third-party tools, many users have suggested the use of ExplorerPatcher or Windhawk. Particularly, the former can even give you the Taskbar experience of Windows 10 if you like. However, please note that they are non-Microsoft products, research carefully before you decide to download and install them!

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.