diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-connected-dark.png b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-connected-dark.png
index be38eb0a6..f18a929a0 100644
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diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-connected-macos.png b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-connected-macos.png
index 9c9a76366..ead210250 100644
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diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-connected.ico b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-connected.ico
deleted file mode 100644
index 6ee5335e8..000000000
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diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-connected.png b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-connected.png
index be38eb0a6..4258a5c1c 100644
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diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-connecting-dark.png b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-connecting-dark.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a665eb61c
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diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-connecting-macos.png b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-connecting-macos.png
index 87d548b9c..0fe7fa0db 100644
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diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-connecting.ico b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-connecting.ico
deleted file mode 100644
index a62d16e83..000000000
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diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-connecting.png b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-connecting.png
index d97312fec..4f607c997 100644
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diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-disconnected-macos.png b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-disconnected-macos.png
index 58e32e690..36b9a488f 100644
Binary files a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-disconnected-macos.png and b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-disconnected-macos.png differ
diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-disconnected.ico b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-disconnected.ico
deleted file mode 100644
index b5bdab507..000000000
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diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-disconnected.png b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-disconnected.png
index a79fd1bed..a92e9ed4c 100644
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diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-error-dark.png b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-error-dark.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..969554b16
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diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-error-macos.png b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-error-macos.png
index ce9dc6d1d..9a9998bcf 100644
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diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-error.ico b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-error.ico
deleted file mode 100644
index f3bb85e21..000000000
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diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-error.png b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-error.png
index 32c61b82d..722342989 100644
Binary files a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-error.png and b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-error.png differ
diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-update-connected-dark.png b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-update-connected-dark.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..52ae621ac
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diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-update-connected-macos.png b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-update-connected-macos.png
index 84cb1c029..8a6b2f2db 100644
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diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-update-connected.ico b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-update-connected.ico
deleted file mode 100644
index 5b1df668d..000000000
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diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-update-connected.png b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-update-connected.png
index 4b160f888..90bb0b7f1 100644
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diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-update-disconnected-dark.png b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-update-disconnected-dark.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9e05351f1
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diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-update-disconnected-macos.png b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-update-disconnected-macos.png
index fb8f8573e..8b190034e 100644
Binary files a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-update-disconnected-macos.png and b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-update-disconnected-macos.png differ
diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-update-disconnected.ico b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-update-disconnected.ico
deleted file mode 100644
index f3a1986fc..000000000
Binary files a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-update-disconnected.ico and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-update-disconnected.png b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-update-disconnected.png
index 2e9e1c8b2..3adc39034 100644
Binary files a/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-update-disconnected.png and b/client/ui-wails/assets/netbird-systemtray-update-disconnected.png differ
diff --git a/client/ui-wails/build/Taskfile.yml b/client/ui-wails/build/Taskfile.yml
index a8262fc49..590d4791b 100644
--- a/client/ui-wails/build/Taskfile.yml
+++ b/client/ui-wails/build/Taskfile.yml
@@ -110,22 +110,31 @@ tasks:
       - wails3 generate icons -input appicon.png -macfilename darwin/icons.icns -windowsfilename windows/icon.ico -iconcomposerinput appicon.icon -macassetdir darwin
 
   generate:tray:icons:
-    summary: Rasterize the SVG tray sources to PNG/ICO embedded by the Go side.
+    summary: Rebuild Windows multi-res .ico files from the per-state PNGs.
     desc: |
-      Reads assets/svg/*.svg and writes assets/<state>.png (Linux/macOS
-      tray) plus assets/<state>.ico (Windows tray). The .ico packs 16/24/32/48
-      px frames so Shell_NotifyIcon picks the size matching the user's DPI
-      instead of poorly downscaling a single large PNG.
-      Run after editing any SVG; CI runs this before build.
+      The colored tray PNGs (assets/netbird-systemtray-<state>.png) and the
+      macOS template variants are committed to the repo as the canonical
+      source. This task only regenerates the Windows multi-resolution .ico
+      files from those PNGs by downscaling each to 16/24/32/48 px and
+      packing them with icotool, so Shell_NotifyIcon picks the frame
+      matching the user's DPI instead of downscaling a single large PNG.
+
+      Run after replacing any of the colored PNGs (e.g. when copying a new
+      version of the icons from client/ui/assets). The SVG sources in
+      assets/svg/ are kept for reference but are not built by default.
     dir: assets
     sources:
-      - "svg/*.svg"
+      - "netbird-systemtray-connected.png"
+      - "netbird-systemtray-disconnected.png"
+      - "netbird-systemtray-connecting.png"
+      - "netbird-systemtray-error.png"
+      - "netbird-systemtray-update-connected.png"
+      - "netbird-systemtray-update-disconnected.png"
     generates:
-      - "netbird-systemtray-*.png"
       - "netbird-systemtray-*.ico"
     preconditions:
-      - sh: command -v inkscape >/dev/null 2>&1
-        msg: "inkscape is required to rasterize tray SVGs (apt install inkscape)"
+      - sh: command -v magick >/dev/null 2>&1 || command -v convert >/dev/null 2>&1
+        msg: "ImageMagick is required to downscale PNGs (apt install imagemagick)"
       - sh: command -v icotool >/dev/null 2>&1
         msg: "icotool is required to pack tray .ico files (apt install icoutils)"
     cmds:
@@ -133,19 +142,14 @@ tasks:
         set -euo pipefail
         tmp=$(mktemp -d)
         trap 'rm -rf "$tmp"' EXIT
+        resize=$(command -v magick || echo convert)
         for state in connected disconnected connecting error update-connected update-disconnected; do
-          # 64px PNG for Linux tray + macOS-template PNG (per-state)
-          inkscape --export-type=png --export-width=64 --export-filename="netbird-systemtray-$state.png" "svg/$state.svg" >/dev/null
-          inkscape --export-type=png --export-width=64 --export-filename="netbird-systemtray-$state-macos.png" "svg/$state-macos.svg" >/dev/null
-          # multi-resolution .ico for Windows tray
           for sz in 16 24 32 48; do
-            inkscape --export-type=png --export-width=$sz --export-filename="$tmp/$state-$sz.png" "svg/$state.svg" >/dev/null
+            "$resize" "netbird-systemtray-$state.png" -resize ${sz}x${sz} "$tmp/$state-$sz.png"
           done
           icotool -c -o "netbird-systemtray-$state.ico" \
             "$tmp/$state-16.png" "$tmp/$state-24.png" "$tmp/$state-32.png" "$tmp/$state-48.png"
         done
-        # Linux dark-mode variant currently shares the connected artwork.
-        inkscape --export-type=png --export-width=64 --export-filename="netbird-systemtray-connected-dark.png" "svg/connected.svg" >/dev/null
 
   dev:frontend:
     summary: Runs the frontend in development mode
diff --git a/client/ui-wails/icons.go b/client/ui-wails/icons.go
index 3f4ec97f2..802377d25 100644
--- a/client/ui-wails/icons.go
+++ b/client/ui-wails/icons.go
@@ -4,10 +4,12 @@ package main
 
 import _ "embed"
 
-// Tray icons embedded from the legacy Fyne UI's asset set so the rewrite has
-// something to render until Stage 3 produces SVG sources. Each pair is a
-// light-mode PNG and its dark-mode variant; macOS template variants live
-// alongside for menubar use.
+// Tray icons embedded from the legacy Fyne UI's asset set. Each pair is a
+// light-mode PNG and its dark-mode variant; macOS template variants
+// (*-macos.png) live alongside for menubar use. Windows uses the same
+// PNGs — multi-resolution .ico files looked promising on disk but
+// Wails3's Shell_NotifyIcon NIM_MODIFY never redrew them on the running
+// tray; PNG single-frame works.
 
 //go:embed assets/netbird-systemtray-connected.png
 var iconConnected []byte
diff --git a/client/ui-wails/icons_windows.go b/client/ui-wails/icons_windows.go
deleted file mode 100644
index 1e0763770..000000000
--- a/client/ui-wails/icons_windows.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,29 +0,0 @@
-//go:build windows
-
-package main
-
-import _ "embed"
-
-// Windows tray icons. Wails3 hands these to Shell_NotifyIcon via
-// CreateIconFromResourceEx, which picks the frame matching SM_CXSMICON
-// (16/32 px depending on DPI). A single high-res PNG forces the OS to
-// downscale and the result is fuzzy at tray size — multi-frame .ico files
-// avoid that by embedding 16/24/32/48 px raster frames in one resource.
-
-//go:embed assets/netbird-systemtray-connected.ico
-var winIconConnected []byte
-
-//go:embed assets/netbird-systemtray-disconnected.ico
-var winIconDisconnected []byte
-
-//go:embed assets/netbird-systemtray-connecting.ico
-var winIconConnecting []byte
-
-//go:embed assets/netbird-systemtray-error.ico
-var winIconError []byte
-
-//go:embed assets/netbird-systemtray-update-connected.ico
-var winIconUpdateConnected []byte
-
-//go:embed assets/netbird-systemtray-update-disconnected.ico
-var winIconUpdateDisconnected []byte
diff --git a/client/ui-wails/main.go b/client/ui-wails/main.go
index 480b3b21f..2e351ec91 100644
--- a/client/ui-wails/main.go
+++ b/client/ui-wails/main.go
@@ -7,17 +7,41 @@ import (
 	"embed"
 	"flag"
 	"log"
+	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/wailsapp/wails/v3/pkg/application"
 	"github.com/wailsapp/wails/v3/pkg/events"
 	"github.com/wailsapp/wails/v3/pkg/services/notifications"
 
 	"github.com/netbirdio/netbird/client/ui-wails/services"
+	"github.com/netbirdio/netbird/util"
 )
 
 //go:embed all:frontend/dist
 var assets embed.FS
 
+// stringList is a flag.Value that collects repeated string flags. The first
+// time the user passes -log-file the seeded default ("console") is dropped;
+// subsequent passes append. Lets the user replace or extend the log target
+// list without a separate "reset" flag.
+type stringList struct {
+	values  []string
+	userSet bool
+}
+
+func (s *stringList) String() string {
+	return strings.Join(s.values, ",")
+}
+
+func (s *stringList) Set(v string) error {
+	if !s.userSet {
+		s.values = nil
+		s.userSet = true
+	}
+	s.values = append(s.values, v)
+	return nil
+}
+
 func init() {
 	application.RegisterEvent[services.Status](services.EventStatus)
 	application.RegisterEvent[services.SystemEvent](services.EventSystem)
@@ -27,8 +51,15 @@ func init() {
 
 func main() {
 	daemonAddr := flag.String("daemon-addr", DaemonAddr(), "Daemon gRPC address: unix:///path or tcp://host:port")
+	logFiles := &stringList{values: []string{"console"}}
+	flag.Var(logFiles, "log-file", "Log destination. Repeat to log to multiple targets at once, e.g. `--log-file console --log-file Y:/netbird-ui.log`. Each value is one of: console, syslog, or a file path. File destinations are rotated by lumberjack (same as the daemon). Defaults to console.")
+	logLevel := flag.String("log-level", "info", "Log level: trace|debug|info|warn|error.")
 	flag.Parse()
 
+	if err := util.InitLog(*logLevel, logFiles.values...); err != nil {
+		log.Fatalf("init log: %v", err)
+	}
+
 	conn := NewConn(*daemonAddr)
 
 	// tray is captured in the SingleInstance callback below; the var is
diff --git a/client/ui-wails/services/peers.go b/client/ui-wails/services/peers.go
index 093371e39..977cb4f59 100644
--- a/client/ui-wails/services/peers.go
+++ b/client/ui-wails/services/peers.go
@@ -178,12 +178,17 @@ func (s *Peers) pollLoop(ctx context.Context) {
 	ticker := time.NewTicker(PollInterval)
 	defer ticker.Stop()
 
+	first := true
 	for {
 		st, err := s.Get(ctx)
 		if err == nil {
+			if first {
+				log.Infof("peers pollLoop: first status ok status=%q peers=%d", st.Status, len(st.Peers))
+				first = false
+			}
 			s.emitter.Emit(EventStatus, st)
 		} else if ctx.Err() == nil {
-			log.Debugf("status poll: %v", err)
+			log.Warnf("peers pollLoop: status poll error: %v", err)
 		}
 
 		select {
diff --git a/client/ui-wails/tray.go b/client/ui-wails/tray.go
index 91a3625e6..34d785209 100644
--- a/client/ui-wails/tray.go
+++ b/client/ui-wails/tray.go
@@ -299,8 +299,10 @@ func (t *Tray) onSystemEvent(ev *application.CustomEvent) {
 func (t *Tray) onUpdateAvailable(ev *application.CustomEvent) {
 	upd, ok := ev.Data.(services.UpdateAvailable)
 	if !ok {
+		log.Warnf("update event payload not UpdateAvailable: %T", ev.Data)
 		return
 	}
+	log.Infof("tray onUpdateAvailable: version=%s enforced=%v", upd.Version, upd.Enforced)
 	t.mu.Lock()
 	t.hasUpdate = true
 	t.mu.Unlock()
@@ -383,15 +385,14 @@ func (t *Tray) rebuildExitNodes(nodes []string) {
 }
 
 func (t *Tray) applyIcon() {
-	if runtime.GOOS == "windows" {
-		t.mu.Lock()
-		ico := trayIcon(t.connected, t.hasUpdate, t.lastStatus)
-		t.mu.Unlock()
-		if ico != nil {
-			t.tray.SetIcon(ico)
-		}
-		return
-	}
+	t.mu.Lock()
+	connected := t.connected
+	hasUpdate := t.hasUpdate
+	statusLabel := t.lastStatus
+	t.mu.Unlock()
+
+	log.Infof("tray applyIcon: connected=%v hasUpdate=%v status=%q goos=%s",
+		connected, hasUpdate, statusLabel, runtime.GOOS)
 
 	icon, dark := t.iconForState()
 	if runtime.GOOS == "darwin" {
@@ -563,3 +564,4 @@ func titleCase(s string) string {
 	}
 	return strings.ToUpper(s[:1]) + strings.ToLower(s[1:])
 }
+
diff --git a/client/ui-wails/tray_icon_other.go b/client/ui-wails/tray_icon_other.go
deleted file mode 100644
index 6e2489929..000000000
--- a/client/ui-wails/tray_icon_other.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,8 +0,0 @@
-//go:build !windows && !android && !ios && !freebsd && !js
-
-package main
-
-// trayIcon is unused on non-Windows hosts — Linux feeds setIcon a PNG and
-// macOS uses SetTemplateIcon. This stub exists so the compiler is happy and
-// callers don't need build tags around references.
-func trayIcon(_, _ bool, _ string) []byte { return nil }
diff --git a/client/ui-wails/tray_icon_windows.go b/client/ui-wails/tray_icon_windows.go
deleted file mode 100644
index 8cd7ec606..000000000
--- a/client/ui-wails/tray_icon_windows.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,27 +0,0 @@
-//go:build windows
-
-package main
-
-import "strings"
-
-// trayIcon returns the Windows-tray .ico bytes for the given state. The
-// other-platform implementation in tray_icon_other.go returns the colored
-// PNG instead. Splitting it this way keeps the Linux/macOS paths free of
-// .ico artifacts in their //go:embed search and avoids loading large icon
-// resources where they aren't used.
-func trayIcon(connected, hasUpdate bool, statusLabel string) []byte {
-	switch {
-	case strings.EqualFold(statusLabel, "Connecting"):
-		return winIconConnecting
-	case strings.EqualFold(statusLabel, "Error"):
-		return winIconError
-	case connected && hasUpdate:
-		return winIconUpdateConnected
-	case connected:
-		return winIconConnected
-	case hasUpdate:
-		return winIconUpdateDisconnected
-	default:
-		return winIconDisconnected
-	}
-}