Can’t find VPN icon? Here’s how you can solve it easily

3 min. read

Updated onOctober 4, 2023

updated onOctober 4, 2023

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Key notes

VPNsare popular for their privacy-protection features. You install them on your computer, connect to a server of your choice, and you’re off the radar.

Your ISP, or government, or any other snoop can’t see your online activity any longer.

Not to mention that you get to benefit from several other perks, such asbypassing geoblocking,improving packet loss, anddecreasing in-game ping.

Yeah,VPNcan do all that by simply routing your entire traffic through a secure tunnel.

And maybe the best part about having aVPNon your PC is that you can afford to install it and forget about it. MostVPNscan and do run flawlessly from your system tray.

The only hint that you’re using aVPNis the occasional notification or the little icon that’s stuck to your tray during its runtime. However, some users report that they can’t see an icon, even though theirVPNis running.

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Can’t find VPN icon?

1. Check the taskbar settings

We’ve usedPrivate Internet Accessfor our example, but if you’re using anotherVPNservice, locate it in the list and make sure its icon’s visibility is enabled.

Private Internet Access

An easier way to tackle this issue is to enable theAlways show all icons in the notification areaoption. However, if you have a lot of programs installed on your PC running in the background, your tray might get overcrowded.

2. Check the VPN settings

The reason why these steps aren’t quite specific is that eachVPNhas its own set of options. Some clients automatically close when you click their X button, but they also allow you to minimize them to tray instead of killing the app.

Others also let you customize the way the icon shows up. You might want to choose a different style for the icon. There might be a problem on your system with the way tray icons are displayed, and changing the icon’s style might just fix it.

3. Check if the VPN is, in fact, running

If you can’t seem to find anyVPN-related process on your PC, your service might not even be running. In this case, you might want to reinstall it or check out our comprehensiveVPNtroubleshooting guide for a fix.

Your VPN icon can sometimes be invisible

All things considered, even if yourVPN‘s icon seems to be invisible, that can usually be fixed without a hiccup. You can either solve the issue from Windows’ taskbar settings, or yourVPNclient.

However, sometimes there might be an underlying issue that would affect yourVPNicon’s visibility: theVPNnot working at all.

In which case, we’d suggest you try and reinstall the program or check out ourVPNtroubleshooting guide for directions.

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Can’t find VPN icon? Here’s how you can solve it easily#

Can’t find VPN icon?#

1. Check the taskbar settings#

Private Internet Access#

2. Check the VPN settings#

3. Check if the VPN is, in fact, running#

Your VPN icon can sometimes be invisible#