When you exit the client on current PTS, the process explorer.exe is forced to restart. This resets your desktop to the state it was in when last booting your computer. It also removes multiple taskbar icons including (for me) nvidia control panel, sound mixer software and ASUS motherboard monitoring software.

This was previously happening on all platforms some months ago. It was fixed on w10 and 11, but w7 users were left with it and told it was necessary for player security. See here
: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7619724/#Comment_7619724

Last patch this was also fixed on W7, though there was nothing in the patch notes about it. I was very happy. Currently on live on W7 explorer.exe behaves normally when exiting the game.

Please don't put this back on W7 players. I know we are an annoying inconvenience, but there's something very wrong with the implementation of these security measures if you have to interfere with key processes to get them working.