ICF is enabled. Brian Boston is posting the FAQ on this soon
12) My printer icon in the task tray disappeared!
If you're using a printer shared over the network that is hosted on another
computer, and Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) is enabled, this may be
causing the problem. ICF is doing its job - protecting your computer from
receiving possibly insecure new connections from other computers.
If you need this functionality, you could open (on the machine missing the
icon) the printing and file sharing ports covered in the section "I'm using
ICF (Internet Connection Firewall) - how do I make my shared printers work?"
Microsoft recommends that you do NOT do this on any machine unless it's for
sharing a printer - this configuration reduces the protection ICF can give
you.
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/ports.asp
How to Open Ports in the Windows XP Internet Connection Firewall
--
Alan Morris
Microsoft Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowto
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.