I've had windows 7 64-bit on both my desktop and laptop since the fall and I encounter this glitch every once in a while on both machines. This has happened probably ~15 times so far. I boot up the PC. - my tray icons don't load - the clock is behind by a couple months - clicking on "show hidden icons" near the tray results in a big empty white window that acts weirdly as you move your mouse around it. This causes invisible icons to appear in the tray - when I try to compile a project in Visual Studio Express 2008, it says it is up to date even when it isn't - when I try to debug a freshly recompiled project, it says it is out of date and needs to be compiled again I just wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this glitch. The fact that it happens on both my machines makes me wonder if this is a common glitch, why hasn't it been patched yet? I'm posting this out of frustration -- after trying to fix a "bug" in my code I realized my project wasn't even getting compiled. Peace, going to reboot now :)

I've never had these issues, at all. I would have suggested a bad CMOS battery but, as you claim, it's affected two separate machines so I think the likelihood of both of them being bad is quite low.

I have to ask this - is your copy of Windows legitimate or did you get it from Hooky Street?

Both legit copies. The desktop was built in the early fall and the laptop purchased late fall so bad CMOS batteries in both would be quite rare I think.

Never seen it. Normally I'd say it's a corrupt install of windows or bad RAM, but if you're getting the same behavior on two machines then it's something specific to your software. Since it's the same on a desktop and laptop I think that also excludes driver problems.

You have some other software (or alterations to the OS) on your systems which is causing these issues.

Quote: Original post by ukdeveloper
I've never had these issues, at all. I would have suggested a bad CMOS battery but, as you claim, it's affected two separate machines so I think the likelihood of both of them being bad is quite low.

Perhaps, but still worth mentioning.

This could also possibly be caused/related to dual booting?

Dual booting is practically transparent to the operating systems once they are booted (though you can still access the other OS instance files).

My guess would be a virus or malware infestation.

Quote: Original post by Nik02
Dual booting is practically transparent to the operating systems once they are booted

Yes, however, different standards for what the hardware clock is set to (UTC, current local time, daylight adjusted or not, etc) have been known to wreck the occasional time keeping havoc. Not typically on the order of months, I'll grant...

Quote: Original post by Nik02
Dual booting is practically transparent to the operating systems once they are booted (though you can still access the other OS instance files).

My guess would be a virus or malware infestation.

heh. That was my initial thought. It's so easy to transfer a virus using a USB key nowadays. Like I solve most of my computer problems though. Format and try again. If it keeps happening then you know something is odd.

Could it possibly be some other software that you are installing on both machines that is screwing things up? Are you using any of the UI customizing tools, like WindowBlinds or some of the Powertools for Windows?

I'm also on W7 64-bit and have noticed times where not all my tray icons appear to have loaded. (is this similar to you or do you have no tray icons load? I've never had none of my tray icons load) I would just restart and it would be fine. It's happened often enough for me to remember but not often enough for me to really look into it. Next time it happens I'll check the date and see if that's screwed up too.