Hi,
hope I am putting this in the right topic, I chose it as it seems to have something to do with a Windows XP bug.

I use Win XP SP2, and lately I have been having the following problem:

Quite often after booting up, my "Start" button is stuck when I click on it with the mouse.
It does work when I use the Windows button, though.
The solution then is to do CTRL-ALT-DELETE, and in the Task manager I have to end the explorer process, and then restart explorer from the Task manager.
However, when I do that, many of my icons are missing in the System tray.

Also, when the machine boots up, not all my icons are there.

The icon problem seems to be a known Win XP bug, and several solutions are offered, such as disabling UPnP, or downloading a Taskbar Managing program from Kelly's Korner, or logging off and logging on again.

Anyway, the start button and icon problems seem to be related.

I have tried a number of solutions: a while ago the UPnP disabling did the job, but that does not seem to be working anymore, I also downloaded the program from Kelly's korner, and that brings some of the icons back, but that's it.

The only solution which really works at the moment is logging off and then logging on again. (I mean logging on and off Windows, just to clarify), but I don't want to do that all the time, of course.

Is there anyone who knows a long term or permanent solution for this problem?
I also have Ashampoo Powerup XP Platinum 2, is there a setting in there that might cure the problem, maybe?

I really hope someone could offer me a working and lasting solution.

Thanks in advance.

Well nothing comes to mind except for reinstalling the operating system if this has been happening from the beginning. However, I found a few sites that might offer some solutions on fixing the problem.

Solution #1
Solution #2
Solution #3
Solution #4

Of course if anyone else comes across this problem and now the solution then by all means post away.