How to Fix Wi-Fi Icon Missing or Not Showing in System Tray Windows 11

The Wi-Fi icon helps you connect to a Wi-Fi network. When you see the Wi-Fi icon, you can easily tell if your computer is connected to the internet or not. If you can’t find the Wi-Fi icon, what should you do?

It’s handy to be able to tap the Wi-Fi icon in the lower right corner of the screen to enter the settings. When the Wi-Fi symbol disappears for some reason, it can be very annoying. However, this problem is rare for Windows users.

However, some people who use Windows have mentioned that they cannot see the Wi-Fi icon in the system tray. The Wi-Fi symbol disappears when the Wi-Fi device is turned off or unplugged from the computer. This problem usually occurs when the computer or laptop wakes up after being in sleep mode.

This issue is not caused by a hardware issue, but it is possible that the internet is not working because the Network adapter is not receiving power from the motherboard. This causes the Wi-Fi icon to be missing.

Also, if you have other performance-enhancing apps or if you’ve changed Wi-Fi settings or turned off Wi-Fi services, your Wi-Fi symbol may not appear on the taskbar because of these things.

In this post, Bardimin will explain how to fix the Wi-Fi icon missing from the system tray issue in Windows 11. This problem can be fixed in various ways, read the full guide below.

How to Fix Wi-Fi Icon Missing in Windows 11

If the Wi-Fi Settings icon is missing from the Task Tray in Windows, here are some steps you can try to recover it:

1] Make sure the network or wireless icon is not hidden.

Sometimes, the icon indicating whether your Wi-Fi is working may be moved to a hidden area of your device. Check if the Wi-Fi icon is here.

1. Press the up-arrow symbol on the taskbar to see icons that are currently not visible.
2. If you see a network or wireless icon there, just click and hold the icon, then move it to the taskbar area.

2] Enable Wi-Fi Network Adapter

Sometimes, your Wi-Fi may stop working even if you don’t do anything, which can cause the Wi-Fi icon to disappear. To be sure, check if your Wi-Fi adapter is turned off or on.

If your Wi-Fi isn’t working, try turning your Wi-Fi adapter off and on. This can help fix the problem.

1. Open Control Panel in Windows.
2. Then navigate to “Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network Connections”.
3. Right-click on the Wi-Fi adapter and then select the “Enable/Disabled” option.

3] Restart the WLAN AutoConfig service

WLAN Autoconfig is a service that helps set up, discover, join, and exit a wireless local area network (WLAN). This is an essential service that Wi-Fi needs to function properly. If you turn off or choose not to use this service, you won’t be able to use Wifi or see the Wifi icon on the menu at the bottom right of the screen.

1. Right-click on the Start button and select “Run”.
2. Type “services.msc” and press Enter to open the Services window.
3. In the Services window, find “WLAN AutoConfig” in the list of services.
4. Right-click on “WLAN AutoConfig” and select “Restart”.
5. After the service finishes restarting, check if the Wi-Fi Settings icon reappears.

4] Restart File Explorer

This solution is perfect if the network or wireless icon does not update by itself to indicate whether the internet connection is working or not. For example, sometimes the icon says “not connected” when you can still use the internet.

1. In an empty area of the taskbar, right-click on the area and select the option that says “Task Manager” or use the keys (CTRL + SHIFT + ESC) on the keyboard.
2. If you only see a limited view of the Task Manager, simply click the “More details” option.
3. Go to the Processes tab and find the Windows Explorer entry. Right-click on it and select Restart.

5] Run PowerShell Commands

1. Right-click on the Start button and select “Windows PowerShell” (Admin).
2. Type the following command and press Enter:

Get-AppxPackage -allusers Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

3. After the command finishes running, close PowerShell and try to see if the Wi-Fi Settings icon has reappeared in the Task Tray.

6] Reinstall the Wi-Fi driver

If none of the previous steps worked, you can try reinstalling the Wi-Fi adapter driver. Installing the Wi-Fi driver again will bring up the Wi-Fi symbol in the taskbar again. Before reinstalling, make sure you get the latest Wi-Fi driver because your computer may not be able to connect to the internet if you remove the Wi-Fi driver.