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One thing that annoys me to no end about Windows 7 is the status displayed by the network icon present in the taskbar. Often you can't identify what's making it have a grey color. It returns to normal for sometime after I've rebooted my machine but later again changes to a grey color.

I doubt I'm having dns issues or any network issues for that matter as I'm able to open all websites fine. Windows troubleshooting does not find any error with the network. Any suggestions on how to find the culprit?

Here's an image displaying the icon showing up in grey color. enter image description here

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you've got to love the simple ipconfig /all...tells it all, no misunderstanding. – Alex Oct 26 '11 at 17:46
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It is not grayed out. I think the icon you see after a reboot is just Windows 7 trying to establish the internet connection. The icon in the screenshot is the default active-connection icon. If you had an issue, you'd see a yellow caution mark super-imposed. – Beaming Mel-Bin Oct 30 '11 at 16:38
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migrated from serverfault.com Oct 26 '11 at 16:36

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1 Answer

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The icon you see there indicates the connection is good and it can "see" the internet.

If there is a yellow exclamation point superimposed over the icon, it usually means it can see the network but it cannot contact the microsoft site it uses for testing it's internet connection. It generally means there is some sort of connection but that the system cannot verify what type of connection. Holding your mouse over the icon will indicate why.

If there is a red X over the icon it means there is no connection and hovering your mouse pointer over the icon will indicated why.

So you're confusing the white icon with a historical "greyed out" look that usually indicated a disabled feature. It's not grey, it's just white, and the superimposed icons will clue you in as to what problems the connection have be experiencing.

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Any guesses what could be the problem in this case? – Mugen Oct 26 '11 at 18:16
1st step is nearly always to make sure you have up to date drivers. Then check if your AV or Firewall software puts some hold on the connection until it is completely loaded. – music2myear Oct 26 '11 at 19:16
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@Mugen: basically, you are seeing its default state. It isn't "greyed out", but rather gets either a red X or a yellow caution icon. – surfasb Oct 27 '11 at 3:18
@surfasb Got it. Basically that state is "normal, everything fine". Thanks. +1 – Mugen Nov 1 '11 at 15:01
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