Why did the MSN status icon disappear after I upgraded from Windows 9x to Windows XP?

A. If the MSN status icon disappears after you upgrade your system to XP or Windows 2000, it might be the result of incorrect settings in the msn.cms file. To restore the missing icon, perform the following steps:

1. Go to Start, Search, and select "For Files or Folders."
2. In the "Search for files and folders named" field, type

    msn.cms 

3. From the "Look in" drop-down menu, select the root of the hard disk, which is typically the C drive. You can verify the root system drive by opening a command prompt and typing

    echo %systemdrive% 

4. Click Search Now. (If you find two copies of the msn.cms file, open each and use the copy that contains the HideTrayIcon setting.)
5. Open the msn.cms file in a text editor.
6. Locate the TrayIcon line in the file, and delete the value following the equal (=) sign. For example, if the line reads

    TrayIcon=MSN\MSNLogo.ico 

   delete MSN\MSNLogo.ico so that the line reads

    TrayIcon= 

7. Locate the HideTrayIcon line, and change the value following the equal sign from the current value to 0.
8. Save and close the file.
9. Restart your computer and start MSN to verify that the MSN status icon appears on the taskbar.