The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    What is this Gold Padlock in my taskbar!?!

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by redsfan7035, Jun 9, 2013.

  1. redsfan7035

    redsfan7035 Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    12
    Messages:
    95
    Likes Received:
    21
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Hey everyone,

    I just reformatted my SSD for a fresh start and I finally finished updating and installing everything and I noticed this gold padlock icon in my taskbar that appears everytime I start my computer. When I hover over it, it doesn't say anything. If I click it, right or left, it just disappears. I have tried hiding it using the customize button on the taskbar but it still appears. Under the customize button though it labels it as: "Windows Explorer."

    I did do some registry tweaks from a guide that I guess could be it. I deleted the hibernation file, turned off drive indexing, shrank page file to 1024mb, disabled Prefetch and Superfetch, and lastly I just made sure TRIM was enabled.

    If anyone knows what it is so I can finally get rid of it that will be awesome as it annoys me !

    Thanks!

    Gold Padlock.jpg
     
    redsfan7035, Jun 9, 2013
    #1
  2. unphoto

    unphoto Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    155
    Messages:
    348
    Likes Received:
    22
    Trophy Points:
    31
    It looks like a shortcut to some credential manager or just to Windows Security.
    your previous steps could not have created this icon, this is put there by a installer package.
     
    unphoto, Jun 10, 2013
    #2
  3. DDDenniZZZ

    DDDenniZZZ Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    810
    Messages:
    1,311
    Likes Received:
    35
    Trophy Points:
    66
    Check your event log, reading online it says it will pop up if its full.
     
    DDDenniZZZ, Jun 10, 2013
    #3
  4. redsfan7035

    redsfan7035 Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    12
    Messages:
    95
    Likes Received:
    21
    Trophy Points:
    16
    I made a .bat to clear my event log I read that too, but it still appears :/ It can't be a shortcut because everytime I attempt to click it, it just disappears.
     
    redsfan7035, Jun 10, 2013
    #4
  5. ikisat

    ikisat Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    25
    Messages:
    97
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    You don't have "ownership" of whatever that icon is protecting. Which likely means something went wrong with your fresh install because it would be lingering permissions that caused that... You should just be able to reset your ownership and set it to all or manually click everything it might be and select "take ownership". If Google can't help you I'll post a tutorial on easy ways to do that sometime later.
     
    ikisat, Jun 11, 2013
    #5
  6. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

    Reputations:
    3,658
    Messages:
    6,874
    Likes Received:
    969
    Trophy Points:
    281
    Do you have Windows.old folder on your C: drive?
     
    Alienware-L_Porras, Jun 12, 2013
    #6
  7. redsfan7035

    redsfan7035 Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    12
    Messages:
    95
    Likes Received:
    21
    Trophy Points:
    16
    No I do not have a Windows .old it was a complete fresh install. I don't understand how to reset my ownership ikisat if its possible for you to post a tutorial. I tried just changing my UAC but that did not work.
     
    redsfan7035, Jun 13, 2013
    #7
  8. ikisat

    ikisat Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    25
    Messages:
    97
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Add "Take Ownership" to Explorer Right-Click Menu in Win 7 or Vista

    Here is an easy way with a download link. Link seems fine and I've used the program it's having you download before without issue.
     
    ikisat, Jun 13, 2013
    #8