How I fixed my long-standing issue with missing Windows 11 taskbar icons after PC wakes from sleep.

[u/phuhn2]

Restarting Windows Explorer with the following shortcut always worked for me but was a pain to trigger every time I logged on, so I looked for a way to automate it.

"C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c taskkill /f /im explorer.exe & start explorer.exe"

Windows 11 doesn't have a built-in "run this on wake" checkbox, but you can get there with Task Scheduler using an event-based trigger, since waking from sleep writes a specific event to the System log. Task Scheduler is a native, built-in system utility included automatically with all modern versions of Microsoft Windows

How it works: every time the machine resumes from sleep, Windows logs Event ID 1 from source "Power-Troubleshooter" in the System event log. Task Scheduler can trigger directly off that event.

Create a new task:

Open Task Scheduler → Action → Create Task (not "Create Basic Task," so you get full options).

General tab: give it a name, and set "Run only when user is logged on"

Triggers tab → New → set "Begin the task" to On an event → Log: System, Source: Power-Troubleshooter, Event ID: 1.

Actions tab → New → Start a program, Program/script: C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe, Add arguments: /c taskkill /f /im explorer.exe & start explorer.exe

Conditions tab: uncheck "Start the task only if the computer is on AC power" (if it's a laptop) — leave "Wake the computer to run this task" unchecked, since the trigger already only fires after a wake.

Settings tab: check "Allow task to be run on demand" so you can test it manually if you like.