Can you send a signal to Windows Explorer to make it refresh the systray icons?

Question

This problem has been afflicting me for quite a while and it\'s been really annoying.

Every time I login after a reboot/power cycle the explorer takes some time to s

Answer 1

Two important details for anyone using Louis's answer (from REFRESHING THE TASKBAR NOTIFICATION AREA) on Windows 7 or Windows 8:

First, as the answer was reflected to show, the window titled "Notification Area" in XP is now titled "User Promoted Notification Area" in Windows 7 (actually probably Vista) and up.

Second, this code does not clear icons that are currently hidden. These are contained in a separate window. Use the original code to refresh visible icons, and the following to refresh hidden icons.

//Hidden icons
GetClientRect(
    hNotificationArea = FindWindowEx(
        FW(NULL, L"NotifyIconOverflowWindow"),
        NULL,
        L"ToolbarWindow32",
        L"Overflow Notification Area"),
    &r);

for (LONG x = 0; x < r.right; x += 5)
    for (LONG y = 0; y < r.bottom; y += 5)
        SendMessage(
            hNotificationArea,
            WM_MOUSEMOVE,
            0,
            (y << 16) + x);

For anyone who just needs a utility to run to accomplish this, rather than code, I built a simple exe with this update: Refresh Notification Area