Question for today. I hope you can follow my description.

When I boot up my computer I usually have 4 "hidden icons"; Windows Security, Malwarebytes, Norton, and something I think is from my video card. One day a few weeks back the Windows Securtiy wasn't there but I couldn't remember what it was and I went about my business. Well actually, it went missing after I had restarted my computer due to it making percolating sounds for about a half hour and running up my disk usage when I wasn't doing anything.

Anyway, today something was missing (and even though it was just an hour ago I can't remember which icon it was) so I hit restart. When it came up again there seemed to be much spooling going on if I hovered over the bottom bar of my computer (not if I had the cursor on my main screen). This time the Malwarebytes icon was missing. (I'm thinking now that I may have hit restart while it was scanning.) So, I hit shut down and booted up again awhile later. All is now fine.

The question is, what reason could there be for one of the icons not showing up upon booting. Is that an indication of a problem?

Not necessarily. Mine kind of come and go too. Defender is your Windows Security. You can always see what is in your Startup Programs by looking at the Task Manager under that tab. "Most" of them are the ones that reside in that hidden icons place.

Thank you. My concern is more about if an icon that is normally there (such as Norton) doesn't appear there when I boot my computer up, does that mean that something is interfering with my Norton maybe?

You can always open up the task manager to see if it's running in the processes. But I get why you would wonder where it went!

Okay, thanks. Doesn't sound like anything to worry much about.

Maybe I'll have a better question tomorrow.

I liked this one!