I just noticed that the CIS icon wasn’t in the System Tray (including the hidden area), a problem I haven’t seen before. I started CIS (3.5.57173.439) from the Start menu, and the CIS icon appeared in the System Tray at the same time as the GUI opened. (I did not first check to see if CIS was running invisibly.) I consider this a fairly serious problem.
John
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Hi John
As far as I know, this is a cosmetic problem (not serious a problem)… and, specifically, a Windows problem rather than a CIS problem that has been around since NT (impacting many applications). With the systray icon not present, CIS is still 100% functional (assuming cmdagent.exe is running) & is not impaired in anyway (other than you cannot see or reach the systray icon). As you noted, running CIS from the start menu will restore the icon immediately.
Even if the front-end GUI of CIS (cfp.exe) was not running at all, CIS would still be 100% functional, just not able to communicate with the user.
Hang on… I may have just fibbed. Perhaps, it was W2k that this first appeared rather than NT. I’m old, my memory is going! 
I posted this a while ago, it fixed it for me:
https://forums.comodo.com/empty-t31011.0.html;msg223154#msg223154
Thanks. I’m familiar with the issue you describe, which seems to be an issue of applications not creating their System Tray icons properly under all conditions, as indicated by the fact that some applications exhibit the problem while others do not, which is why I (still) consider this a CIS bug. I’m hoping it will be addressed in the impending beta.
There’s no way to know that without digging through the list of running tasks. Thus ordinary users won’t know one way or the other, which is why I (still) consider this a “fairly serious problem”.
John
p.s. A common work-around is to log off and back on, which makes System Tray icons appear/reappear. Another common work-around is a startup delay, but I personally don’t think it’s a terribly good solution.
OK, fair enough. Sorry to have distracted you, please continue with your bug report.
No problem. I appreciate the thought.
John
This bug persists in 3.8.64739.471 
As far as logging off then on to see all your system tray icons, I consider that a Windows issue. I see that regularly (usually after a restart) for other applications besides Comodo. It is related to how Windows handles things and is known with Microsoft.
It is not a CIS bug.
With all due respect, that many properly-written Windows applications do not exhibit the problem is strong evidence that the problem is not caused by “how Windows handles things” (and is not otherwise a Windows issue), that it’s caused by Windows applications that don’t generate their system tray icons properly under certain conditions. Microsoft has not acknowledged this to be a Windows issue AFAIK. Logging off and back on to recreate the icon is thus a workaround to an application problem, not a Windows problem. If you have any real and convincing evidence to the contrary, please provide it, but unless and until you do, I will continue to consider this a CIS bug.
John
That information I had picked up off of the Vista support board, and in fact other users had also complained about M$'s own icon(s) also failing to display always.
I still believe it is a Windows issue until absolutely proven otherwise.
That is of course your right, but since you have provided no real evidence (like a link to an actual Microsoft statement on the issue), and since you have no explanation for why so many applications do not exhibit the problem, I will continue to think it’s an application issue, based on the weight of available evidence.
COMODO should fix the problem regardless, since it interferes with use of the application.
John
I had the same problem. I use Styler which developed a problem win XP SP3 so I disabled start-up items and re-enabled them 1 by 1 and it was during this phase I noticed the Comodo Icon wasn’t coming back again. Anyway, a way round this I’ve found that may help is to use a program that stalls the start-up with a delay called, not surprisingly ‘StartDelay’ which you can get from here http://www.r2.com.au/ I now set Comodo on a 30 second delay to give everything else a fighting chance to load beforehand and the Icon appears due to this delay. I then set Styler for 15 seconds later and everything is running again as wanted. If you can live with an extra 30 seconds of vulnerability then it’s a good stop gap. You may even reduce that 30 sec time by trial and error, see what works for you. I’m happy with 30 secs so I’ll leave it at that. Good luck.