Bizarre icons on menu bar after OS update

[maclover9771]

New member, first question...I recently upgraded my 2019 27" iMac to Monterey 12.2. After a few days I noticed the menu bar had a series of identical repeating icons (See the attachment, although for some reason it is smaller than when I saved it)), at the moment there are 27 of them. When I hover the mouse over any of them the pop-up reads "there are updates available".

I think I've seen the icon before, but can't sure what it is. Clicking on them does nothing.

Any clue on how I can figure out what program is bonding these here and how to get rid of them?

Thanks!

Roscoe

(I can send the original attachment if required...it's much easier to read at full size)

 

[chscag]

Welcome to our forums.

I couldn't help but notice that you are in TurboTax. Could the icons have something to do with TurboTax, perhaps updates to forms? Or do those icons remain when you are just displaying the Finder and no other application? And have you tried rebooting?

In any event, hold down your Command key and try dragging the icons from the top menu to the desktop and then drop them. They should disappear.

 

[maclover9771]

Thanks, the icon doesn't match Turbotax (but then I've been wrong before).

I tried the command-drag technique but it didn't do anything. The icon would disappear until I released the mouse button then the row of icons bounced back to where they were. I did notice that by changing what program that held the focus ad reducing the number of menu items that were in the upper left I discovered that a couple of key icons were being pushed under said menu items (when the list was longer).

This is very frustrating...is there a log or something that will tell me what's being thrown onto the menu bar?

 

[chscag]

Are you using any kind of top menu enhancing software that perhaps was a leftover from before you upgraded to Monterey?

Also, you might try starting up your iMac in safe mode to see if those small icons disappear. There may be something running in the background. Safe mode will only load Apple required files.

 

[maclover9771]

Not that I'm aware of. Safe mode is a good idea.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

It's really hard to make out the details on those icons due to the low res of that screen cap. I do see you are running VMware Fusion. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with that. When you run Windows in VMware using Unity mode, you do get more icons in the menubar. I just tried it and I get icons for items from the System Tray in my Windows VM. I think your icons are notifications for updates in your Windows VM... either Windows itself or apps that are installed in Windows.

 

[maclover9771]

Actually...you're right. I closed VMWare and the icons went away. When I reopened VM in full screen I saw updates pending. I updated and all went away.