Task Icons

Sometimes the taskbar icons die on my Win-10 machine. I saw the resolve on the internet of resetting Windows Explorer to get them active again but to me that is just a band-aid. Is there a way to actually fix the problem?

I tried to do a search for your problem, and apparently there is a problem with icons going invisible (but actually still there and you can click the space) that may be different from a problem with the icons not being there at all.

Here's one fix that involves your antivirus and removing Desktop from the protected folders list:
https://social.technet.microsoft.co...nned-icons-on-task-bar-keep-disappearing
If you are using Windows Defender as an antivirus, the above is probably not the problem, but if you're using a 3rd party antivirus this fix might help.

Some other potential fixes:
https://thegeekpage.com/fix-taskbar-icons-missing-windows-10/

Yes... first thing I was going to ask was what anti-virus you are using? I use Defender and have no problems. But a computer I worked on used McAfee and I had to exclude Desktop from it.

Thats not the problem. They dont disappear, they freeze.

Here are a couple of websites with possible fixes for non-working taskbar icons:

https://www.askvg.com/fix-start-menu-and-taskbar-icons-not-working-in-windows-10/

https://techloris.com/fix-windows-10-taskbar-not-working/

Yikes, re-starting windows explorer doesn't sound so bad after reading those fixes.
I wonder if using "Classic Shell" may be causing the problem?