PIA disappearing from system tray on Windows 10
Just purchased\installed PIA for the first time yesterday. After about 15 minutes of using it, the PIA icon disappeared from the system tray. VPN was still running though. I did a log off and log back on and it reappeared. I then reconnected and it stayed there for about a whole day. And now it's gone again, same problem.
Is there a fix\is PIA team aware of this? Very annoying that I can't modify the settings without doing a log off and log back on every time this happens.
Comments
https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/images/download_windows_done.png?15c53e9f974ca99ee30c368ac4cf02ec
For those who may not know how, right click the installation software,
chose "Troubleshoot Compatibility" and chose the recommended setting then follow the prompts.
I have tried:
Install & Uninstall - too many times
Installed using compatibility troubleshooter - made no difference
Created a new startup task in Task Scheduler - Windows completely ignored it at startup yet ran every other task in the list properly.
All of these attempts were as administrator with reboots between attempts.
Something is obviously broken and I wish PIA would just make some simple status update about what they are doing about it. Perhaps they have but I'm too thick to find it? Someone please point me to the definitive statement on the subject. Or better yet, the officially sanctioned work around until a new installer is ready.
Oddly, PIA runs fine (I'm pretty sure) when run manually but I'm not great at remembering to start it. That is what startup tasks are for.
I have to say the Windows 10 makes me feel like I need a hot shower after slogging through all the anti-privacy options and squashing them like bugs. It's exactly the kind of OS that makes me want total confidence in my VPN service.
https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/forum/discussion/18237/fixed-windows-10-automatic-startup-issue
Two posts on how to edit the Win10 registry to fix our problem by a poster with a posting history of 2 posts - and feedback that the fix breaks something further downstream.
This is the kind of thing that PIA needs to comment on. Something not working as it should is like an itch you can't scratch, especially so with a new OS. People will continue to try ill-advised hacks because we are being left in an info vacuum.
PIA refers to us as 'beloved customers' but this is not how you treat customers. I have a hard time believing that PIA doesn't know where the problem is and what has to happen to correct it.
14 million people converted to Win 10 by last weekend. MS is throwing around numbers like 1 - 1.5 billion Win 10 accounts by 2017. This is not a problem that is going to go away regardless of how much PIA would like it to.
My Win 10 install is on a secondary laptop because I felt that beating a new OS into shape might break a few things and I wanted my desktop machine to just continue working with no drama (Win 7). Not everybody has that luxury. And of course every new PC sold from now on will be running some flavor of Win 10. When those consumers clue in to what Win 10 is doing with their personal data will PIA be ready to help preserve the little bit of privacy we have left?
Unofficial tinfoil hat speculation to follow: I wonder if a VPN service that works seamlessly with Win 10 might be a future "Windows 10 as a Service" component? Betcha their data collection points will all be white listed though.
And in other news: Apple has been busy reminding us that only they really care about our privacy: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet-security/11683644/Apple-more-committed-to-user-privacy-than-Google-or-Facebook.html
Maybe privacy and the current state of big data collection are mutually exclusive. MS has wired data collection into it's new OS and then gave it away for the most part. Do you think they did that out of the goodness of their hearts?
I choose to push back a little and turn off as much data collection as I can. I pay PIA for their service as part of that push back. I really need it to work as it should in a Windows 10 world.
And I'm not really interested in a non-official workaround.
The (maybe) interesting one here is explorer.exe (safetly remove hardware or media) because it's listed twice - once properly and once with the PIA icon. If I slide the PIA icon one to show on the taskbar nothing happens... Conflict of some kind?
Link below, use at your own risk, blah blah blah.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/49819-icon-cache-rebuild.html