TASK BAR ICON

RickL

Hi Folks I am A NEWBE. Should I see a BitDefender Icon on my task bar each time I start my PC's. I know it is running as I can see it updating Etc. If I should see an Icon how do I adjust the settings to see it?

Thanks For the Info.

Niels

Hi RickL

You must see a red BitDefender icon near your system clock. The colour will change when some options are disabled. If you see that then BitDefender is running. Open BitDefender,settings and take a look if start BitDefender when windows loads.

Regards

Niels

alexcrist

Hi RickL,

Windows XP might hide BD's tray icon because it is "inactive". If you don't see the icon, click on the arrow in your System Tray to see all icons.

Cris.

RickL

Thank You I will check my settings

flyinghigh4

I have the same problem. Sometimes my BitDefender icon will not be showing in the taskbar. I have Windows XP but I have it set up to not hide the icons. All my other icons show. I know BitDefender is running because when I check Task Manager the processes running are BDSS.EXE, bdagent.exe & dbmcon.exe. I like having the icon just to know its running. If I restart enough times eventally it will come on. Any body have any ideas?

khufu

You should have more BD process running:

xcommsvr.exe

bdss.exe

livesrv.exe

vsserv.exe

bdmcom.exe

bdagent.exe

When you don`t have BD try icon, go to run type services.msc and make sure all BD services are running.

Also try to restart all BD services and see if the try icon is present.

flyinghigh4

Khufu,

I do have all 6 of the process running that you said I should. I went to services.msc and I have BD Communicator,BD Desktop Update Services, BD Scan Server & BD Virus Shield. I'm not sure where you want me to restart all BD services. I go to Start, Progarams and start DB from there. It just opens a BD window. It looks like everything is running but still no icon.

vladx

Hi flyinghigh4.

I think khufu meant to stop all the Bitdefender servicesby going to services.msc and then start them again.

loony

Hi,

try to clear the pretech and temp folder and restart the system, when the icon is not to see.

Hope that will be help.

Greets

loony

flyinghigh4

loony,

Don't know what you mean by pretech folder. Temp folder--do you mean my temporary internet files?

vladx,

I closed those services and restarted BD. My computer slowed to a crawl when I restarted BD. I checked processes in task manager and bdmcon.exe was useing 90% of my cpu. I ended up having to restart the computer. When I restarted the computer now I have the icon in my taskbar. Hope it stays there.

Thanks all

loony

Hi,

right,in windows exploerer, the preftech and temp folder clear.

khufu

Hi,

Probably i was not so clear as it should.

If you stop BD services from services.msc you should start them again from there, not just run BD exe from desktop or start programs becouse it won`t work as it should.

Prefetch folder is in: *:\windows\ prefetch where "*" is the partition where you have installed the OS.

loony

Hi,

ok,it´s my turn, i gave than the exact path

It´s a joke, don´t understund miss.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instruction_prefetch

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temp

Greets

loony

Niels

Hi flyinghigh4

If you clear your prefetch folder then the next boot will be slower. I sometimes have the same issue that I don't see sometimes the icon. But if you find all processes that khufu mentions in task manager. Then you don't have to worry because the realtime protection is active.

Regards

Niels

alexcrist

Hi flyinghigh4,

I also have the same problem, and not only with BD. Sometimes, many of my TRAY icons just don't appear (even if the programs start).

The solution is simple: open TaskManager and force to kill bdmcon.exe. Then open it again, from your Desktop or StartMenu.

Since bdmcon is not a critical part of BitDefender (it's an important part of BD, but it's not critical), then you don't have any problems if you close it for a few seconds.

Also, as Niels said, even if the TRAY icon is not visible, BD still protects you. The only thing that's a little harder if you don't see the icon is to open BD Management Console (harder = you have to open StartMenu and open BD from there )

Cris.

vladx

Sometimes it happens also to me that the BD tray icon doesn't appear on boot and i run bdmcon.exe to fix this, like Cris said.

Niels

You can restart bdmcon also in task manager. Just go to file new task then type bdmcon.exe. If you receive an error message then you have to type the entire path X:\Program Files\Softwin\BitDefender10\bdmcon.exe

Or what Cris said.

mr.g

Hi

First I'm so happy to have found bitdefender and thanks to it to say good bye to norton internet.

I can see that with bitdefender now the computer runs better and quicker.

The only thing I have to say, it's that afetr some days, the red litle ball that appears beside the time (on the bottom, rith side of the screen) it's disapears. So every single time that arrives that I have to re-install bitdefender and then its appear again and after two or three days the litle ball desapears again and again I have to re-install bitdefende.

So after such long describing of my problem, my question is : what can I do to resolve this problem ?

Thank you

vladx

Edit: i merged this topic with the other one.

mihai_romanian

If the BD icon is not on the taskbar it means that it is updating or it's turned off.just double click the shortcut of BD on the desktop and that will start it again.If the small icon doesn't appear not even after that it means it's a problem with the installation maybe an option u faild to check or u unchecked.

alexcrist

@mihai_romanian: if bdmcon.exe started correctly, but the icon didn't appear in the TRAY (as I said in my previous post), then double-clicking the BD icon on your Desktop (or StartMenu) won't do anything more then opening BD Management Console. In other words, that icon won't appear if you don't close bdmcon.exe first.

Cris.

mihai_romanian

Sorry Cris i'm too much of a noob to understand but i wanna learn.So how would BD start corectly in the first place if the small icon in the taskbar did not appear?

alexcrist

Hi mihai_romanian

If you can't see the icon in the TRAY (for any application, not only for BD), it doesn't really mean that it didn't start. It means that it couldn't create the TRAY icon. When that happens to you (if it happens), open TaskManager and you'll see that bdmcon.exe is there.

Another way to see if bdmcon.exe started is the Scan Activity Bar. That bar is a part of bdmcon, and if you can see it, then bdmcon is started.

On some (very) weird occasions, it happens something on my PC and NO application can create the TRAY icon. That only solution then is a PC restart.

I have a program (ASUS Probe) that constantly has this problem (but it throws an error: "Error creating TRAY icon") and I have to restart that application.

Cris.

mihai_romanian

Ok i understand now Cris(lol now u'r the one to writte wrong my name,your a funny man after all)

Still it is desireable to have the small icon runing cause i allways use it(for closing BD for ex).It is just usefull and if it doesn't start at all i do not consider that to be a corect BD start in any way.But thanks for explaining.

Cheers!

alexcrist

That problem is not related to BD. It's related to some Windows problem (I have no idea what). Since, as I said, it doesn't only affect BD, then it's obviously that it's not BD related.

And the solution is simple: as I said, force to kill bdmcon.exe and restart it from desktop (or StartMenu).

Cris.

P.S.: sorry, for misspelling your name

Niels

Rightclick on a free space near the system clock adjust messages. Now you can set if you want an icon to be displayed always,only when active,or not show at all. That is the only way in windows how you can "tell" windows what icons windows must display. Sometimes even when you set in on show it everytime it could that windows forgot to load it.

Regards

Niels

alexcrist

Hi Niels,

I have that option disabled (Hide inactive icons), so that's not a problem in my case (I find that option useless, because I use all applications that are started in TRAY and I hate to press another button to see the application I want to access).

And this TRAY problem is not a matter of "windows forgot to load it". Windows it's a program, it doesn't just forget to load programs (Microsoft is just not good enough to make programs that forget ). It's a matter of errors at Windows Startup.

Cris.

Niels

Hi Cris

You are right I had to say that windows forgot to display the icon but it started up the programs. That is I wanted to say in my previous post.

But I know that I will not always work. You can add the icon also to the "quick starting" by dragging and dropping so you can directly start any program.

Regards

Niels

8bitBeat

The same happens for me as well. Even opening up BD doesn't help. It's the only tray icon that never works for me.

Niels

The same happens for me as well. Even opening up BD doesn't help. It's the only tray icon that never works for me.

Hi 8bitBeat

That's strange. Normally when you exit BitDefender ( I mean closing the main screen when you manually start BD) the icon must be visible near the system clock. I had the same issue also with icons of other programs.

Regards

Niels

miekiemoes

Some people do have problems with one or more icons not loading/appearing in the system tray.

The problem can be caused by the Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP) which discovers Universal Plug and Play devices on your network. More info and resolution here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/841571/

So disable the SSDP Discovery Service, restart your computer and see if that solves the problem. If not, enable the SSDP Discovery service again.

As noted, When SSDP Discovery service is disabled, new devices on the network cannot be found automatically.

alexcrist

Hi miekiemoes,

Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP) which discovers Universal Plug and Play devices on your network.

Could you give me an example of what SSDP finds? I'd like to know if I can safely stop this service, without any disadvantages.

Cris.

miekiemoes

Hi,

Read here for more info: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323713

Well, you can still test it though, disable the SSDP, restart your computer and see if that solved the "missing icon" problem. If so, you can still enable SSDP - but now you will know what the cause is.

Niels

Hi miekiemoes

Thanks for your suggestion. But on my computer it happens not always. I can be wrong but normally if that service is the case then the icons must be always invisible. What I read that it only helps for plug and play devices and not for icons of programs.

Regards

Niels

Hi Cris

You may set the service to start manually see here:

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

The only thing you have to do is to manually restart the service after an reboot by going to start,run,at the run dialog box type services.msc and press enter. Now leftclick on the Simple Service Discovery Protocol service and press start.

Regards

Niels

AndreiASM

It only happened once for me, however, all the sevices were running. After a reboot, everything went just fine! Never had that problem again.

miekiemoes

What I read that it only helps for plug and play devices and not for icons of programs.

Actually it does "interfere" with icons loading, since in some cases, the SSPD service actually "freezes" the systray when you start up Windows. This is only for a couple of seconds, but when an icon wants to "load" the same time, it won't load. Not really sure if you read this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/841571/

Also, more info here: http://www.mydigitallife.info/2006/01/04/s...-in-windows-xp/

Well, I actually had that issue on my other box - that's why I remembered this solution. Everytime after reboot, my icon for Kerio Firewall wouldn't "load". I really tried everything to see what was causing this but couldn't find it. I reinstalled Kerio a couple of times, but still had the same problem.

Strange thing was, when I logged off and logged on again (without a reboot), the Kerio icon did appear. And that's how I found the Microsoft site.

So I disabled the SSDP service and that fixed the "issue" and my icon for Kerio was back.

Niels

Hi miekiemoes

You are right. The reason why I thought that was because of the name of service. Now when I read it more carefully in conjunction with your second link. I see it now.Thanks again for your solution. I always thought that it has something to do with the options to always display or never display the icon near the system clock.

Regards

Niels

miekiemoes

I always thought that it has something to do with the options to always display or never display the icon near the system clock

Normally yes - that's the first option you should check when an icon is not appearing while the related process(es) are running. But as you see, even though all icons are set to visible, the "problem" remains, so something else is causing this. And in 90% of the cases, it's indeed the SSDP service.

However, I have seen cases where desktop enhancement tools were also causing this same problem (for example Windowblinds).

alexcrist

Hi Cris

You may set the service to start manually see here:

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

The only thing you have to do is to manually restart the service after an reboot by going to start,run,at the run dialog box type services.msc and press enter. Now leftclick on the Simple Service Discovery Protocol service and press start.

Hi Niels,

Sometime, a while back, I followed an on-line guide about services and I've set many of them on Manual. This service (SSDP) is also set on Manual, but is always started. That's why I thought it must be used by something else so I shouldn't Disable it without knowing what I'm doing.

I really don't care if, by disabling this service, I won't have any access to other computers/resources in my network, because I already blocked any such connections. The only thing that makes me hesitate before disabling this service is that I have a DHCP assigned IP and I don't want to loose my connection because of this service.

So, I searched a little on the web and I found that:

- this service is loaded by svchost.exe

- this service uses UDP protocol to connect

- this service uses port 1900

After looking in the BitDefender Firewall Traffic List, I found that BD already blocked, by default, svchost.exe from connection on port 1900 with UDP protocol. So I'm almost 100% sure that this service can be turned off without any problems.

Can anyone confirm this?

If I'm wrong, can anyone give me a simple example of what SSDP does?

Cris.

miekiemoes

Cris,

connection on port 1900 with UDP protocol. So I'm almost 100% sure that this service can be turned off without any problems.

Yes, because when it's enabled, it *can be a security threat. You may want to read this:

http://www.grc.com/unpnp/unpnp.htm

This will give a better understanding of what it does and why so many people already disable it by default.

Niels

Normally yes - that's the first option you should check when an icon is not appearing while the related process(es) are running. But as you see, even though all icons are set to visible, the "problem" remains, so something else is causing this. And in 90% of the cases, it's indeed the SSDP service.

However, I have seen cases where desktop enhancement tools were also causing this same problem (for example Windowblinds).

Hi miekiemoes

Checking these options didn't work many times. Only to open the program then exit. When I did that the icon was visible again.

For me it's not a big deal. I know which processes that must be running to know that BitDefender is fully working. I don't use desktop enhancement tools. Because I don't trust them.

Regards

Niels

Hi Niels,

Sometime, a while back, I followed an on-line guide about services and I've set many of them on Manual. This service (SSDP) is also set on Manual, but is always started. That's why I thought it must be used by something else so I shouldn't Disable it without knowing what I'm doing.

I really don't care if, by disabling this service, I won't have any access to other computers/resources in my network, because I already blocked any such connections. The only thing that makes me hesitate before disabling this service is that I have a DHCP assigned IP and I don't want to loose my connection because of this service.

So, I searched a little on the web and I found that:

- this service is loaded by svchost.exe

- this service uses UDP protocol to connect

- this service uses port 1900

After looking in the BitDefender Firewall Traffic List, I found that BD already blocked, by default, svchost.exe from connection on port 1900 with UDP protocol. So I'm almost 100% sure that this service can be turned off without any problems.

Can anyone confirm this?

If I'm wrong, can anyone give me a simple example of what SSDP does?

Cris.

Hi Cris

I think that what you wrote is correct. But I am not 100 % sure about it. It seems logic to me what you said.

Here some brief information : http://www.theeldergeek.com/ssdp_discovery_service.htm

But I think that you already read that.

Regards

Niels

miekiemoes

Actually, now I think of it -- If Bitdefender already blocks the svchost.exe from connection on port 1900 with UDP protocol by default and this when the service SSDP service has started.. Maybe that explains why the icon is not showing - because it causes a "freeze" ? Because as I said previously, I was having the same "issue" with my Kerio firewall, so I guess Kerio was blocking svchost.exe from connection on port 1900 as well by default > result > short freeze and Kerio icon didn't load.

Does that make any sense?

alexcrist

Hi Niels,

For me it's not a big deal. I know which processes that must be running to know that BitDefender is fully working. I don't use desktop enhancement tools. Because I don't trust them.

I don't use any desktop enhancement tools either. Not because I don't trust them, but because they are useless (they're good only for "eating" resources).

Here some brief information : http://www.theeldergeek.com/ssdp_discovery_service.htm

But I think that you already read that.

Thanks. That's the exact same guide I used a while ago to configure the services. But I saw that Is this service needed? Possibly, and I left it on Manual, just in case something needs that service.

Actually, now I think of it -- If Bitdefender already blocks the svchost.exe from connection on port 1900 with UDP protocol by default and this when the service SSDP service has started.. Maybe that explains why the icon is not showing - because it causes a "freeze" ? Because as I said previously, I was having the same "issue" with my Kerio firewall, so I guess Kerio was blocking svchost.exe from connection on port 1900 as well by default > result > short freeze and Kerio icon didn't load.

Does that make any sense?

Yes, it makes sense.

It's obvious that the firewall blocks this service and, when that happens, SSDP will then stop waiting for a time-out (a few seconds).

Conclusion: this service is gone! Anyway, if I have any problems I can always turn it back on (I doubt that I will have problems since it's connections are already blocked and I have no problems with my IP ).

*after trying to stop the service*

I just discovered that there is one service (Universal Plug and Play Device Host Service) that is dependent of SSDP. As it says on the site that Niels posted, this service is recommended to be set on Manual, which is impossible if you set SSDP on Disabled. So that site offers somehow contradictory information.

Oh well...I'll try to stop them both. I hope I won't break anything by doing this

BTW, does anyone else here use a DHCP assigned IP?

Cris.

EDIT: After stopping the services, I could restart my network card without any problems. My IP is back as usual. So...so far no problems

alexcrist

Bad news. The SSDP service disable has not fixed my problem. Right now, when I opened my PC, ASUS Probe has given me an usual Cannot create notification area icon error.

Well, at least it improved a little the Windows Startup (no more delays regarding the start menu and TRAY icons).

Cris.

miekiemoes

Hang on, I think I've seen this issue before with Asus Probe, seems this is a common issue as well.

It has something to do with the Splash Screen for Asus Pro which is disabled.

Let me see if I can still find the link - I think I have it bookmarked somewhere. It also contains a solution.

Edit.. Found it: http://winhlp.com/WxSystray.htm

It's in the middle of the page under: "Cannot create shell notification icon"

alexcrist

Thanks, miekiemoes! I would greatly appreciate it

Yes, the Splash Screen is disabled (I didn't want to, but it seems that the screen bothered my brother...doh).

Cris.

miekiemoes

See my post above - I edited my post with the link.

That explains it. You'll also see another workaround to fix it instead of re-enabling the splash screen.

alexcrist

Yes, I noticed.

Great article. A huge amount of information there that needs to be digested. Thanks again.

Cris.

miekiemoes

You're welcome. Let us know if that solved your issue

vono

I am happy when I don't have to restart my computer 3 times to get bd to start. I have 0 problems with version 9. With 10 seems like a new problem every day.

alexcrist

Hi vono,

Did you look if bdmcon.exe is started (in TaskManager)? You don't have to do a restart to use BitDefender. You just have to kill bdmcon.exe from TaskManager, and restartd BitDefender from your Desktop. It's as simple as that.

Cris.