Bootcamp Icon missing from system tray...

On the 1st computer (iMac) that I installed BootCamp with Win 7, I have an icon in the lower left system tray for changing the booting choice.

Today I installed BootCamp on my wife's new Mac Mini and the icon is missing from the system tray. While it was about 6 weeks ago that I put BootCamp on my iMac, I don't remember doing anything that cause the Windows system tray to display the boot choice icon for BootCamp/Win 7.

Anyone have an idea about how I can get that icon to appear on the Mac Mini.

Both systems are running Snow Leopard with the latest software.

MacBook 3.1 S.R. Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz 4GB, Mac OS X (10.6), IT 8GB-IP 3Gs 32GB-Nano 16GB-21.5 IM

Posted on Dec 30, 2009 8:07 PM

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19 replies

Aug 2, 2010 3:19 PM in response to Macaby

I have had this issue around Webroot anti-virus. It has persisted through every version of Webroot and every version of Boot Camp.

To get the system tray Boot Camp icon to show up, I have to turn off the "start-up items" shield in Webroot - then reinstall the Boot Camp drivers.

This works great until I get a version update from Webroot, which resets the start-up items shield to on, and within a few reboots, I can no longer see the Boot Camp system tray icon. Then, I just fix it again, and go on my merry way til the next version update comes along. (Definition updates are fine; it's only full version updates that reset the shields to their default values.)

If you have a different anti-virus program in Windows, it may be doing something similar.

Jan 2, 2010 9:51 PM in response to Bunji

Bunji wrote:
Try reinstalling the Apple drivers/software for windows by popping in the OSX installer disk when you are in windows.


Without knowing the downside, I'm a little leery of trying the above on my wife's computer. If it were mine, I would be on it like a shot since I could always reload everything.

Jan 3, 2010 8:27 AM in response to Bunji

Bunji wrote:
Try reinstalling the Apple drivers/software for windows by popping in the OSX installer disk when you are in windows.


By reinstalling "Apple drivers/software", does this method "wipe" all the software already installed "MS Office, etc"? I understand about reinstalling Windows software because I've done it dozens of times since the days of Windows Ver 2.0, Windows 95, etc". Even if this operation was limited to BootCamp, I assume it would wipe the present BootCamp partition. Is that correct?

Jan 3, 2010 10:04 AM in response to Doctor Pangloss

Doctor Pangloss wrote:
By reinstalling "Apple drivers/software", does this method "wipe" all the >software already installed "MS Office, etc"? I understand about reinstalling


Negative. It will reinstall the Boot Camp software and the Windows drivers required by your hardware.


I hate to be a bonehead, but this is my wife's new Mac Mini. Are you definitely saying that Windows 7 or the Windows software will NOT be effected by this procedure?

When I plug in the Apple disk, does a menu come up that will lead me to reinstalling BootCamp software only?

Thanks for putting up with these detailed questions.

Jan 3, 2010 10:29 AM in response to Macaby

Do you have another PC or Mac running Windows?

Apple's DVD has a partition that normally will only mount in Windows. All it has is a folder under /BootCamp that has Apple Setup.exe - you need on any Windows system, to install motherboard chipset suppport and drivers.

The only way your ethernet, mouse, audio and video, as well as hardware abstraction (HAL).

Worried? make a restore point. Make a backup image (Windows 7 system backup; WinClone).

All you are doing is install some little olde drivers and services.

Look in Programs control panel (Windows, obviously) to see what was installed; also look in MSCONFIG.exe for services and startup.

AppleOSSwitcher
AppleTimeServices
....

You'll have Boot Camp control panel which also puts OS Switcher on the Task bar.

Maybe a manual would be more useful.

Jan 6, 2010 9:01 AM in response to Macaby

Macaby there are two separate components of Boot Camp. First is Assistant which runs on the Mac side of things from OS X. It creates/deletes the Windows partition which is necessary to install Windows. Next the Boot Camp Panel software which is installed once you have successfully installed and are running Windows. It allows tweaking of the Apple hardware from within Windows. It is installed using the OS X disc and does not jeopardize your installed Windows OS in any way. This disc also contains the hardware driver necessary to optimize the hardware in Windows. In my experience this disc has never started via autorun so you will most likely have to locate the Boot Camp folder and run the setup.exe file manually.

Don't know how much your wife uses Windows but if it's running well enough then you may want to leave it alone. Check device manager in Windows for any red or yellow punctuation marks. This will indicate a potential driver issue in Windows. Also check the Windows Experience Index for performance issues. A 1 anywhere indicates a driver issue. If you have no driver issues and Windows is running well enough you may want to leave it at that.

Jan 31, 2010 8:44 PM in response to Macaby

I have a similar problem too, running Boot Camp 3.1 on my Mac Mini. For this current Boot Camp as well as older ones since 2.0, the Boot Camp icon in the system tray sometimes is there and sometimes is not on boot up. Often, a Windows security update will restore the icon, but then subsequent computer restarts will make it disappear again. When it's gone though, I cannot use my Apple Remote to control the system volume, nor can I use the special buttons on the Apple Wireless Keyboard like the Eject button. Apparently, the Boot Camp icon has to be present in the system tray for these features to work. How does one make the Boot Camp icon stay in the system tray persisently after restarts?

Feb 1, 2010 12:50 PM in response to Peter C.

Generally this is a stupid windows/boot camp and Virtuality problem.

This frequently happens if you demount the bootcamp drive partition and also use it within a virtuality programme such a Parallels.

Parallels creates a second personal profile in windows and this removes/disables the Bootcamp control panel icon and can also disable the media keys on the Apple keyboard as well when you boot back into Bootcamp.

Normally this can be resolved by booting down and restarting in Windows as this will force the normal user profile to load up restoring the bootcamp tray icon and Apple keyboard function keys.

To see the extra profile just right click on Computer properties advanced User profiles - you will find an additional item listed unknown -Thats the virtuality Profile and the culprit in most cases.

Re installing the Bootcamp drivers does not help but only adds the personal profile confusion.

Mar 4, 2010 9:16 AM in response to Keith Doherty3

Keith,

Thanks for your help. I tried what you mentioned and my profile was the only one on the list (I don't use virtualization software so that might be why). I still have the same problem expressed by Peter C. I have no Boot Camp system tray icon and as a result I've lost some of my keyboard functionality (brightness and volume keys) and the Apple Remote no longer works.

Does anyone know why this is happening?

Mar 4, 2010 9:22 AM in response to Keith Doherty3

Keith,

Thanks for your help. I tried what you mentioned and my profile was the only one on the list (I don't use virtualization software so that might be why). I still have the same problem expressed by Peter C. I have no Boot Camp system tray icon and as a result I've lost some of my keyboard functionality (brightness and volume keys) and the Apple Remote no longer works.

Does anyone know why this is happening?

Mar 6, 2010 7:04 AM in response to Macaby

I have a possible fix: try this, but make sure you don't edit the Registry any way other than I have specified otherwise you can **** up your PC. Use System Restore if you don't trust yourself.


1. Run the Registry Editor (go to Start, Run, and type "regedit").

2. Go to the following folder: HKEY LOCALMACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

3. There should be a bunch of startup programs that your computer uses on the right hand side. Look for 'Apple_KbdMgr'. *If it doesn't exist*, then you may have found your problem. Go to Edit, New, String Value, and name it 'Apple_KbdMgr'. Set the Data Value to C:\Program Files\Boot Camp\Bootcamp.exe (if you haven't changed the Boot Camp directory). If you have, alter the data value as appropriate.


I sincerely hope this works for anyone who is getting this problem. Please post back and let me know if it does/doesn't.

May 6, 2010 9:22 AM in response to Macaby

Hi there - kind of glad someone else has this problem - nto that I would wish a problem on someone else, but you get my drift.

My issues began when I had a half installed version on zonealarm on my XP bootcamp partition. Zonealarm was preventing me from allowing any application other than explorer from having access to the internet and the only way of uninstalling it was to do a step by step guide deleting some pretty heavy core files.

So that worked... but then I noticed the volume from the keyboard and the system tray had disappeared. Also, however many times I have tried I cannot get the ethernet connection to recognise my printer (I'm assuming this is part of the same problem).

So, anhyone know how to get the system tray icon back?

May 19, 2010 12:08 PM in response to sunil vishin

Navigate to C:\Program Files\Boot Camp
and run Bootcamp.exe

This put the little black bootcamp square in the task tray - and upon restarting my machine, it did come back into the task tray. But then after a few more restarts it didn't come back.

Not sure if this will work, but I put the bootcamp.exe (right click / properties) into Vista compatibility mode. For now it's persisted across 5 or 6 restarts, so I'm crossing fingers that it'll stick around now.

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Bootcamp Icon missing from system tray...

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