Hi, I recently installed Windows 7 X86 RC, the installation went well and I have no worries. I am wirelessly connected to my Secure Home Network and have been surfing the internet quite happily. However the network status indicator in the system tray is greyed out with a red 'X' over it instead of the globe...???? As if I am not connected? Its not really an issue as I have access to the web and online stuff, I'm just wondering if anyone else has come across this and if they have managed to fix it ???? Alternatively if there is anybody out there who knows what the issue is? As I said, its not really a problem I would just like 'all the pretty lights to come on'. Thanks. JD

Thanks alot, I considered that. Wasn't 100% though.

I have this same issue on Windows 7 x64 RC. Even when both my Ethernet and Wireless are both connected it still shows a read X. Come to think of it I haven't seen it have the globe in a good while.

I don't believe what The Digital Jedi said is correct. What The Digital Jedi is talking about I think is the Network Connections Applet (ncpa.cpl) and not a disconnected network connection. I don't see why having a disconnected network connection should reflect a red X in the Network Status System Tray. A lot of people have both Wired and Wireless enabled at any given time but yet not using both. Also disabling any connections not in use does not effect the red X for the Network Status System Tray Icon.

I have the same issue as well on x86 RC with only a wired connection. In the beta the icon was fine. Beyond that my networking works better than any previous Windows setups. I can even access workstations across a persistant VPN on a separate subnet with almost no delay in showing the shares. I've got a mix of Win7, Vista, Server 2K3, XP Home and Pro, and one Home Server. My only real problem is my ATI TV Wonder driver blue screening in the middle of recording a TV show.

If you hold your mouse pointer over it does it say anything? (ie media disconnected etc?)

Quick update to this minor problem with the icon. The red X appears intermittently, with no real pattern or reason as to when it will show up. I did find what I believe is causing the icon to show the network connection as disabled yet the pop up text states "Internet Access". I was in the Local Area Connection status window to make a change and I noticed under Connection it shows <<<IPv4 Connectivity: Internet>>> and<<<IPv6 Connectivity: No network access>>>. Now in the Properties tab I have IPv6 unchecked since I don't need it and I just adds alot of extra info to Route Print commands and such. I checked the box again to see if that changed anything but since I don't use IPv6 on my network it still says "No network access". I will leave it that way for a while and see if there is any change in the icon, but as of this posting I still have the red X. As a note I am only using a wired connection and have no wireless hardware on any of my systems.

If your PC has both wireless and wired (RJ45 port) capability, then the greyed out with red X is for your wired connection since you're using wireless instead of wired. It's just saying your wired connection is not connected. I disagree because i have both, and this is not happening to me.

I actually ran into a problem like this when i decided to try out static networking to try to resolve another problem. My icon would show four bars, with a yellow triangle, saying no internet access, however, i was able to connect to google, use irc, chat, etc. As soon as I switched back to dhcp configuration, the icon resumed working the way it is expected.

I have a static IP configuration on my IPV4 network and the same problem is occuring to me. When I first installed the Windows 7 RC, the indicator icon was functioning normally, however now it says that I'm not connected to any networks, though I certainly am. It's not a big hassle for me, except that I cannot connect to my VPN because Windows says I need an active connection.

Hi,I recently installed Windows 7 X86 RC, the installation went well and I have no worries. I am wirelessly connected to my Secure Home Network and have been surfing the internet quite happily. However the network status indicator in the system tray is greyed out with a red 'X' over it instead of the globe...???? As if I am not connected? Its not really an issue as I have access to the web and online stuff, I'm just wondering if anyone else has come across this and if they have managed to fix it ???? Alternatively if there is anybody out there who knows what the issue is?As I said, its not really a problem I would just like 'all the pretty lights to come on'.Thanks.JD hi I have same problem but my clour is YELLOW. everything 's working good and I connected via wireless but desktop network icon is yellow !! please help

Static addressing could be the problem as that is what I use due to the size of my network and I prefer to always know the IP of a specific computer. I have moved up to the release version of Windows 7 and I hate to say it but the red X is still there, and my network still is working fine. The icon is functionally useless as compared to the icon in XP and earlier. It does not show send and recieve activity, or the amount of data transfered. You cannot click on it to bring up the status window to quickly change properties etc. That one lacking feature is what I really miss, now you must go thru the Network and Sharing Center to get to the link for the status of the connection. I don't bother showing it in the tray anymore, saves room for other icons. Windows 7 (x86) ver. 6.1.7100.2.0.0.256.1

WIN 7 Pro... All connections are good. Icon does not blink to show activity on line. No 'visual' as on XP Pro.Just a plain gray icon that implies if present and no other notification all is great with connection(s).One must rely on other communications devices lights to determine if movement on line(such as modem, router, etc.)Have moved all com physical devices within the peripheral field of vision, so can detect activiy on the line.How'bout dem apples!. SPA

I had the same problem. To fix it, I uninstalled the drivers for the LAN and Wireless adapters, rebooted the computer [don't know if I needed to reboot in Windows 7 but it can't hurt.] then reinstalled the drivers. If you need to, you should download the driver installers off the internet before uninstalling the drivers, obviously. After that the icons worked great! In my case I think the registry got corrupt when I installed Orical Virtual Box, and Virtual Box installed a virtual network adapter, so, reinstalling the drivers fixed the registry. Hope I was helpful.

Brad, I try your suggestion but the issue continue. I see the 4 bars with a little orange sun (or asterik?) on it... Have internet connection OK. But can't find a reliable way to recover the Icon without this orange asterik... I would appreciate some well fundamented recovering answer from Microsoft... g.

I also have the same problem and also none of the solutions listed here works for me. Could you solve it already or not?

This is the only thing i tried and it worked. I unchecked the IPv6 and the icon was back to normal. After you get the icon back to normal, you can re enable the IPv6 and the icon remains normal.

I ran into a similar problem after toying with VPN in Windows 7. Both my work PC and my home PC suffered from similar issues as described in this post, a red X over the connection icon in the notification area, but a consistent internet connection none the less. My work PC is a member of a domain, and my home PC is on a peer to peer network. Although the issue is inconsitent, I think it has something to do with the implementation of the seperate VPN connection listed below my wired connection in the notification area. It seems as though even when I delete the VPN connection, and incoming connection it still changes of its own accord. To resolve the issue I uninstalled the driver for my gigabit NIC (Which in this particular instance took considerably longer than normal) and let it reinstall itself on reboot. Fixed the problem on both my home PC and work PC. Even in dissimilar instances, I think trying a)uninstalling and re-installing NIC driver, and b)updating NIC driver to the latest version might be a good place to start. Even if it is a WLAN card, give it a try and see what happens. I see this solution has worked for other people in this post, and there seems to be a common theme: when having one or more connections present windows can potentially display the status of an inactive connection, while still utilizing the active connection to communicate.

Mine does not show any identification when I hover over with the pointer. However, it used to do so. I cannot connect to the other computers in my home network.

Well I had the same problem. I remember back when I was doing a lot of online gaming and I didnt have a wireless receiver for my 360 so I bridged one of my connections and It didn't start it the display problem immediately, but it came up a little while ago. Yesterday I deleted the bridge and it fixed the problem. Hopefully this helps but idk if you have any bridged connections.

this is doing the same thing to me, has been like that for months, grey with a red X its not a problem for me untill i wanted to use my windows media center to connect my xbox slim i had to put a code in, i did this but it says i am not connected to a network when i am, its been like this about 5 months now and i would really really like ti fixed as me and my sister are using the same network but her is working fine and has all white bars and says its connected. thank you in advnace x

Well I had the same problem. I remember back when I was doing a lot of online gaming and I didnt have a wireless receiver for my 360 so I bridged one of my connections and It didn't start it the display problem immediately, but it came up a little while ago. Yesterday I deleted the bridge and it fixed the problem. Hopefully this helps but idk if you have any bridged connections. i did this with my old xbox 360, will this be the problem? how do i unbridge? thank you xx

Hi worked correctly for me in Win 7 Home. Thanks.

Same problem. I tried the solution from xXValdisXx first but Jingoist brought me on the idea of changing the hidden network properties. Go to the Network and Sharing Center and click the active network icon (the house if it's a home network). This opens a window Set Network Properties and a link to Merge or delete network locations. I had 10 entries for my home network and deleted all instances which were not in use. After that I had my icon back.

I am on win7 home and i experienced the same problem but with a different wrong icon. The fix for this problem for me was to simply delete the explorer.exe then rerun it through new task on the Start Task Manager. This is a perfect solution thus you wont have to reboot nor disconnect from internet. I hope it helped.