There have been a number of threads about missing CIS tray icon. Some never see the icon and others see it sporadically. I also had this problem until I stumbled across a work around solution. Use a startup delay program to delay the startup of CIS. In my case, I use 30 seconds after determining that 10 seconds did not work (20 might be OK).
I have seen this problem with other programs and after the developer found out what the problem was a permenant fix was provided in short order. Hopefully, Comodo will do likewise.
I often had several tray icons missing on my XP SP3. This is what cured it for me:
Many people have claimed that a suggestion known as the Ostuni Workaround (named after Francesco Ostuni, who first wrote about it) solves the problem. This is only available if you have Windows XP SP2 (which you ought to have, by now.)
Open “My Network Places” and in the left-hand Tasks panel, select “Hide icons for networked uPnP devices”. (If you’re using Windows Classic folders you’ll have to change the Folder Options to “Show common tasks in folders” to see this. This stops the display of the icons but does not disable the services needed for some devices to work.
The article provides a good summary of the various approaches. For me, the taskbar and disabling SSDS/UPP services did not work. Disabling UPP icons did work but can only be used by users who do not have (and will not have) plug and play devices which is not me. I did not try the logon modification because from my perspecitive that is not an acceptable way to operate.
That leaves 3rd party startup delay software which always works for me and should work for anybody. As the article says this is the most effective solution. Until Comodo corrects the icon startup problem I think that they should instruct users to go this route. That should put an end to the numerous system tray icon threads in various forums and many hours spent by users searching for a solution.
But the real problem is that fw popups are not shown, so CIS blocks the app. If I run an app that access to internet for the first time, the app is blocked. Then I have to run CIS control panel and the tray icon, and the popup asking what to do (allow or block) appears in the right area.
I think this should be documented in Release Notes (FAQ, KB, etc) as an open issue, but my own take is that the time delay work-around isn’t a good general recommendation, not only because of the adverse effect on system startup, but also because masking problems is a generally bad idea. My guesstm is that many (most?) of these work-arounds wouldn’t get removed when the problem gets fixed, which I’m hoping will be the impending beta.