Safely Remove Hardware: where did the icon go? How do I safely remove hardware without it?

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Thanks for the tip, but I did this instead: Start - Administrative Tools - Services. Stop and Disable Universal Plug and Play Device Host and SSDP Discovery Service. After that I also switched Behavior (in Customize Notifications) of the Safely Remove Hardware icon to Show Always (right click on Taskbar - Properties - Customize). Then I restarted Windows and the Safely Remove icon moved to Current Items and back in its old place.
Works just fine as I don't like having any icons on my desktop.

My icon for "safely remove hardware" suddenly disappeared from the system tray on my notebook. I am running Windows XP Pro. After trying the suggested fixes and workarounds, I decided to run the System File Checker in case any related files were corrupted. In the "Run" command window, I typed sfc /scannow After twenty minutes the scan was complete, System File Checker closed, and when I checked the hidden icons in the system tray, the Safely Remove Hardware icon was present at last. Later, I found that I had to update my Windows Script files back to version 5.7 because these had been replaced to the earlier versions that came with service pack 2. Otherwise, no other problems with updated files being overwritten by SFC that I am aware of. Unfortunately, System File Checker did not give me any info or summary after it completed its fixes, it just closed leaving me wondering for a moment if it accomplished anything or not. I haven't checked the log files on the hard drive yet, but maybe there is some info there.

I followed your directions on safely removing a USB and the system keeps telling me that it cannot find RunD11.32.exe shell32.dll,Control_Run DLLhotplug.dll. What do I do now? I don't want to corrupt any saved data on the USB

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You need to type EXACTLY what the article said. You typed
(in your comment, at least):

RunD11.32.exe

That is incorrect. The article states:

RunDll32.exe

That's DLL, and no extra period.

Leo

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LOL.
1. Insert USB drive.
2. Open File Explorer.
3. Right click, select properties for USB drive.
4. Select Hardware tab.
5. Select USB drive.
6. Select Properties.
7. Select Policies tab.
8. Feel like a jerk for starting a blog about something you don't understand and spreading misinformation.

I was missing the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon & your solution worked fine. I was also missing some other icons and needed to dig a little deeper. I found the following web site: http://winhlp.com/node/16 It turns out the problem is fairly complex with a variety of solutions. I was able to find a work around that seems to solve all my missing systray icon problems.

Leo's solution worked but required several steps as he explained. Evenmore, the "icon" would go away after removing the device or re-booting. I accidentally discovered (as usual)that the video driver (for the integrated Intel Chipset and for unknown reasons) was causing the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon to disappear. After un-installing and re-installing the driver the "icon" reappeared in the system tray. It is likely that other scenarios are also due to conflicting drivers.

Very interesting, and useful. I went through all 138 comments, found some old friends, and met a remarkable group of commentators from self-admitted computer illiterates to highly knowledgeable geeks to geeks not quite as knowledgeable as they think they are. Modern computers are too complex for anyone to assume s/he knows it all.

I have my icon back, and have saved a lot more information on related topics (and bookmarked this site). One thing no one seems to have explained: How DO you distinguish among several USB devices when some should not be removed? I turned off my external backup drive once by mistake, though it came back up on the next boot.

I'll send the coffee later, possibly by a different route.

Thanks. This is a great solution to the problem.
There are those who don't see the icon on the little task bar and there are PCs that have a bug that stops the Safely Remove Hardware icon from appearing there.
Keep up the good work, Leo!

Thanks -- your answer was exactly what I needed. Since this problem happens a lot to me, I put a shortcut to this command on my desktop, as you suggested. I went a baby step further and changed the shortcut's icon to the same one as the taksbar icon. This icon is located in the file hotplug.dll.

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