Internet Connection Status Icon missing

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

I am unable to get the internet connection status Icon to show up in my
system tray any more. I have right clicked on my internet connection icon in
Network Places and choose Status but it never shows up. Also when I close IE
it no longer disconnects although I have set the dialup connection to auto
disconnect when closing IE. The strange part is if I close IE and then go to
the Internet connection Icon the only option it gives me is to Connect but if
I pick up my phone I can see that I am still connected to the internet so I
have to reboot the pc to drop the connection....any help would be great.
Thanks.

** Bump **

Identical description to my problem: No Wired or Wireless icon shows in the Systray,even if you set both icons to "Show Always" in the System Tray properties.

Network Connections window does not refresh automatically to update connection status anymore. Only way is to manually refresh via Right-click or F5 as described.

"Status" window won't appear when selected from the right-click menu.



I use this computer for Home Automation and its driving me nutz! Trying to avoid having to format/re-install windows because this installation is not that old and it has some many little programs and extras for work =(



I believe its related somehow to combating certain virus/malware problems wether caused directly by malicious software or indirectly via some cleaning process or program. Perhaps its coincidental, but thats about when I noticed it was happening.