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

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To display the right icon navigate to the Shortcut properties and choose Change Icon. Change the "Look for icons in..." prompt to "%SystemRoot%\system32\hotplug.dll". Choose the first icon.

you can just start->run->control hotplug.dll

The icon "Safely Remove Hardware" had disappeared on my Laptop
I tried Control Panel / Administrative Tools /Services. I set "Removable Tools" to automatic as recommended by Hernan Baquerizo.
After reboot, the icon reappeared. So this solution worked.
I must note however that I checked the same setting on my Desktop where the icon was present (as it should) and the setting was on "Manual"....
This shows there is still something else playing...

hi,

I tried several of the solutions above

- then I put
" control hotplug.dll " in the Windows Task Manager under New Task and that worked instantly. I was able to stop the external hard drive, I was able to safely remove it and my taskbar icon came back.

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