unable to remove a taskbar icon in W11

[robdam1001]

When I mouse over the icon it says "search". I *think* the icon was for an email client that I used to use and recently uninstalled, Mailbird. Right clicking on the icon does nothing. The icon is not visible in taskbar settings.

pic

 

[Lutfij]

Give this guide a go;

Rebuild Icon Cache in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to rebuild the icon cache to clear and reset it for your account in Windows 10 and Windows 11. The icons that display for files in Windows are saved in an icon cache so they can be displayed quickly instead of having to manually scan and slowly load them each...

www.elevenforum.com

and see if that helps.

 

[Colif]

Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

It doesn’t delete anything, it just stops non Microsoft programs running with start. Easy to reverse.

if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

could try running command line thing here to remove mailbird, it might be a left over - https://support.getmailbird.com/hc/en-us/articles/220106587-How-to-uninstall-Mailbird

 

[robdam1001]

Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

It doesn’t delete anything, it just stops non Microsoft programs running with start. Easy to reverse.

if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

could try running command line thing here to remove mailbird, it might be a left over - https://support.getmailbird.com/hc/en-us/articles/220106587-How-to-uninstall-Mailbird

thanks...nothing that I have tried seems to fix the issue

 

[gardenman]

Click Start and Run and copy/paste this in:

%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar

It will open a folder. Do you see the Search icon in there? If so, delete it (leave in Recycle Bin for a few days) and restart Windows Explorer.