from right click on date and time, I chose "customize notification icons", and I discovered that Windows is not obeying what it says over there.
for instance, I have igfxTray.exe (that's the intel GUI I was talking about) set to on, and it does not show.
I have "safely remove hardware..." set to off, and it shows.
EDIT: when right clicking on the intel icon, I don't see any option there about showing icon in system tray.