A customer's Windows 11 Pro 26H1 Surface Pro with a Snapdragon processor is missing the entire system tray in the bottom-right corner. The clock, date, battery indicator, notifications, and other tray icons do not appear at all.
I have already rebooted the device, checked the taskbar settings, restarted Windows Explorer, cleared the icon cache, run SFC and DISM checks, and tested with a newly created local user account. Since the problem also occurs with the new account, it appears to affect the whole system. The device is cloud-only joined to Microsoft 365, and the user does not have local administrator rights.
The device normally uses three displays, including the built-in screen, but the issue remains even when all external displays are disconnected. Has anyone encountered this on an ARM-based Windows device, or found a reliable fix?
2 Answers
It may be worth checking the display configuration, including whether Windows thinks there is another display connected. The tray can behave differently on secondary screens, particularly when another display is set as primary.
This sounds similar to an issue reported on some ARM-based Windows devices where taskbar components such as the clock, widgets, and tray disappear together. One suggested fix was installing or repairing the Microsoft Windows Web Experience Pack from the Microsoft Store. That may restore the missing taskbar components, although it would be wise to create a recovery plan first because another report mentioned display-driver problems after attempting a related fix.
I checked that. All three displays are detected and configured correctly, and the tray is still missing when the Surface is used by itself with no external screens connected.