[ WORKING FIX INCLUDED IN THREAD ] More Tray Icon Trouble! Even Now?

Comodo Internet Security - CIS Resolved/Outdated Issues - CIS
1

Hi…

I’ve installed the latest Firewall, leaving out the installation of the AV, because I don’t want it.

The icon has switched, just as it did a few months back, from being a very helpful item to being a shrunken and worthless white shield with some flames behind the left side of it and it simultaneously stopped showing any traffic directions.

And, as for have I remembered to find this number, that number and sent you this file and that file - save it for those techie enough to understand whatever it all means. If you want to fix this bug, then, for goodness’ sake, FIX it! If you don’t want to fix it, DON’T fix it!

It took you over two years to make the tray icon work correctly and now it’s messing up, again.

How can a virtually celestially Godsent programme have such a stupid bug left in it?

If that shrunken shield with the flames behind it is some way of telling me that there is a virus sig’ database update, would somebody care to tell me why it would do that if I’VE NOT INSTALLED THE ANTIVIRUS, ANYWAY?

Once again, I have to uninstall a version and reinstall an older version!

Every time I come back to Comodo’s newest version of the Firewall, I get this stress, disappointment and annoyance and I’m honestly fed up to my back teeth with it! >:(

Ian.

2

Hi…

D’you know…the thing that makes me madder about this than any other is: Comodo Firewall, with Defense+, is the only - THE ONLY - piece of software that I’ve actually bragged about having found, EVER…in all my years messing around on computers. No other program (not even MS Word) has ever inspired me to gush and glow about it, and there have been many, many hundreds on these machines. I’ve recommended it to around 37 people that I know - people who have the same feelings about security that I have, and all but around 4 have already switched to it.

I just want the tray icon to do what it’s supposed to do - show traffic and, when there’s no traffic, just be full sized and normal. At first, it was - for around 1-2 days, and then…it’s just this shrunken little mess with NO TRAFFIC shown at all, any more.

Even though I have no techie knowledge, I just want to get this sorted and I don’t know how to go about it.

Ian.

3

It would be nice if you added some more usefull information, like OS version, CIS version etc.

4

Hi Ian,

If you google “missing system tray icons” you’ll find a LOT of entries. This has been a long standing issue with XP and even Microsoft don’t appear to be sure of the cause (it sometimes co-incides with installing a new piece of software) or the fix.

I’m not saying it isn’t CIS, just that there could be other causes.

Ewen :slight_smile:

5

Hi, Kawaii and Panic…

Thanks for the replies, folks.

Some information…

  • CIS Version 3.8.64263.468
  • XP Home Edition v2002 (Seriously) - Service Pack 2
  • 1/2 gB of RAM (Equally Seriously)
  • My AV is “Avast” Home Edition.

I’ve installed (after SP2), the following updates, from MS Windows Update…

Critical (KB886185)
Cumulative Sec Update (AXK for XP) (KB953839)
Cumulative Sec Update for IE7 for XP (KB953838)
Cumulative Sec Update (AXK for XP (KB 956391)
Cumulative Sec Update for IE7 for XP (KB 956390)
Cumulative Sec Update for IE7 for XP (KB 958215)
Security Update for OE for XP (KB951066)

Security Updates

KB 873339
KB 885836
KB 888302
KB 890859
KB 891781
KB 893756
KB 894391
KB 896358
KB 896423
KB 896428
KB 898461
KB 899587
KB 899591
KB 900725
KB 901017
KB 901214
KB 902400
KB 905414
KB 905749
KB 908519
KB 908531
KB 911280
KB 911562
KB 911564
KB 911927
KB 913580
KB 914388
KB 914389
KB 918118
KB 918439
KB 920213
KB 920670
KB 920683
KB 920685
KB 922582
KB 923191
KB 923414
KB 923980
KB 924270
KB 924667
KB 925902
KB 926255
KB 926436
KB 927779
KB 927802
KB 928255
KB 928843
KB 929123
KB 930178
KB 931261
KB 931784
KB 932168
KB 933729
KB 935839
KB 935840
KB 936021
KB 936782
KB 938127
KB 938464
KB 941569
KB 941693
KB 943055
KB 943460
KB 943485
KB 944653
KB 945553
KB 946026
KB 946648
KB 948590
KB 950749
KB 950762
KB 950974
KB 951376
KB 951698
KB 951748
KB 952069
KB 952954
KB 954211
KB 954600
KB 955069
KB 956802
KB 956803
KB 956841
KB 957097
KB 958215
KB 958644
KB 957095
KB 960714
KB 958687

Lesser Updates

KB 900485
KB 910437
KB 916595
KB 920872
KB 927891
KB 930916
KB 932823
KB 935448
KB 936357
KB 938828
KB 951072
KB 952287

That moves me from too little information…over to far too much, probably. :slight_smile:

For the first day, or two, the white shield icon remains exactly as it has looked for a year, or more. If anything, it was better, because the up/down traffic indicator had always been “reversed”; showing up arrows for downloads and down arrows for uploads - and, that had been debugged and was working perfectly. Then, that day or two goes by and the white shield shrinks to half its usual size and is accompanied by “flames” on the left side, behind it in the image. What does such a provided icon actually mean at any time in the usage of CIS? Is it some reminder of an antivirus update availability?..if so, why does it show if I’ve not got the AV component installed?

Panic…

Thanks for the Google suggestion, but it’s not missing, this icon - it’s just shrunken and no longer ever shows any traffic arrows, at all.

I love Comodo’s Firewall and Defense+ so much, this is like pacing up and down, waiting to see what the Doctor has to say about a sick child.

Ian.

6
The icon has switched, just as it did a few months back, from being a very helpful item to being a shrunken and worthless white shield with some flames behind the left side of it...

“Shrunken and worthless”? Sorry, I just found that quite funny.

I noticed the “flame-shield” icon when I updated my CPF, too. I didn’t know what it meant, but no warning or error messages appeared, and the firewall said it was running, so I didn’t worry about it. (As for the icon’s appearance, I rather liked it—the shield’s protecting the system against the “fire,” get it?)

After a little while, the normal shield icon returned, and nothing terrible seems to have happened. Could this be a “Don’t worry, be happy, and enjoy your great free software” kind of thing? Quite possibly.

Maybe the Comodo devs just wanted to see if we were paying attention. :?)

7

Hi…

I’ve had quite enough of shrunken and worthless, so I’m uninstalling yet another update and reinstalling an earlier update - pre-AV, which is the way I prefer it. The irony is that I’ll have to put up with the upload/download arrows acting out each other’s part; I’m getting accustomed to it, but I’d be grateful if somebody could figure this one out, pretty soon.

The way I figure it is…if a simple icon animation isn’t even working, in this updated version, how can I guarantee that any other part of it is working and that’s a big worry! :cry:

Ian.

8

Check in the CIS main screen, if it says “All systems are active and running”, then it is all working.

I would seriously recommend NOT using CFP 3.0, due to all the bugs and vulnerabilities that were fixed in CIS (:SHY)

is accompanied by "flames" on the left side

Hmmm… previously, the comodo icon with flames was used to notify the user that a new version of the comodo software is available and and is being downloaded/installed…

But since you’re running the latest version - 3.8 - this seems like a bug…

Mods/devs, any ideas?

9
The way I figure it is...if a simple icon animation isn't even working, in this updated version, how can I guarantee that any other part of it is working and that's a big worry!

I just read this in another part of the forum: “The ‘flame’ icon indicates that updates are available.” So relax, dude!

10

I had the same problem after the latest update, but I tried the fix detailed in this thread:

https://forums.comodo.com/firewall_help/strange_icon_in_system_tray-t34654.0.html

It seems to be a problem relating to the icon itself and not the program. Looks like the wrong icon is being displayed. I got around it by deleting the ‘IconStreams’ and ‘PastIconStreams’ from the following registry key:-

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\TrayNotify

I then opened the ‘Task Manager’ and clicked the ‘Processes’ tab. Then clicked on ‘Explorer.exe’ and then ‘End Process’. Still in the ‘Task Manager’, I clicked on ‘New Task’ and browsed for ‘Explorer.exe’ in my Windows folder. Clicked OK. You may have to re-boot (I didn’t have to).

The tray icon works just fine now.

CIS version: 3.8.64739.471
OS: WinXP Home SP3

11

Hi…

YES! DID THE ABOVE! THE PROBLEM IS FIXED - FOR HOW LONG, I HAVE NO IDEA! (Imagine a lucky rabbit’s foot smiley around here!)

To GeoffA - many thanks for that. That looks a lot better and I feel a lot better - the white full sized shield icon is back and the traffic green and red arrows are back and are currently functioning perfectly.

Let’s hope it lasts. Let’s also hope that this may have a faster fix created as part of the Preferences/Options part of the Firewall, as time goes by, if still required, by then.

Ian.