disappearance of the sound volume icon Solved/Closed

Question

Hello,

The sound volume icon (shaped like a speaker) on the right side of the taskbar regularly disappears every two restarts of the PC. I can't identify what is causing the disappearance.
So I have to reactivate the icon in the "Sound and Audio Devices Properties > Volume > Device volume > Place volume icon in the taskbar" window. Whether or not I am playing sound on the PC does not seem to be the issue.
Thank you for your responses.

Configuration: PC Win XP SP2

pc-serviteur stagiaire · Accepted Answer

Hello everyone,

Having had the same issue, I’ll quickly recap the facts:

I turn on the computer normally, and suddenly for no reason, there are no more network or sound icons. No matter how much you right-click in the notification area (bottom right for those who don't know...), the system icons "sound" and "network" are grayed out, so it’s simply impossible to check them!
It's really annoying, seriously, so I looked at the topic but reinstalling the drivers seemed a bit excessive for such a small problem, so I went looking for my issue on other forums and found a solution that worked for me!

I followed the procedure below which only takes 5 minutes to perform, and even then I’m exaggerating:

1.-Open the "run" command (keys: win+r) or from the start menu if you prefer (the win key is the one with the Windows logo, usually located near the ctrl or alt key or function (fn));
2.-Then type "regedit", be careful what you do, we are going into the registry so don’t touch anything, just follow the steps that are necessary!!;
3.-In the new window that appears, go to the "Edit" tab, then click on "find" (at the bottom);
4.-You write "iconstreams" or "PastIconStreams" and click "next";
5.-After a few seconds or minutes, be patient!! You will see 2 keys normally appear in the right window (in my case) which are "iconstreams" and/or "PastIconStreams";
6.-Delete these keys (both)!
7.-Restart your system (computer) and that's it!! Everything goes back to normal after the restart...magic...:)

There you go, if this could help some of you, that would be cool, it certainly solved my problem.
If my message was useful to you, feel free to click on the little green icon to the right!
Have a great day and good luck to everyone!!

pvallaud · Answer

Hello to you,
check in:
start menu/taskbar/
that you are in classic mode.
if you are in custom mode:
check that your volume function is properly listed as active and not as: always hidden
--
see you / patrick from reims
As Mr. GABIN used to say: << there is one thing I know, it is that we never know! >>

JPA80 · Answer

Hello and Thank you Patrick,  I strictly followed your procedure and indeed the icon survives successive restarts. I take Gabin's formula for myself. The more it goes, the less I know.  Jean-Paul

mc keyne · Answer

I have the same issue except that in Start > taskbar ... the sound icon doesn't appear anywhere?!?   Why?? Do I need to reinstall something??   Thank you

20keur · Answer

Hello everyone, If you have this small problem, right-click on your taskbar, properties, notification area, and check the volume box. If the box is grayed out, go to the control panel (in classic view), sound, sounds, then change one of the sounds, apply it, and do the first manipulation. I hope this will solve your problem.  Rémy

Erasmus · Answer

Hello,

I am using Vista (the latest version). The sound icon, usually located in the bottom right corner of the desktop, has disappeared.

I went through the taskbar and found the volume tab in the notification area. It is grayed out.
It remains grayed out even when I click on "Customize."

I also changed a sound by going into the "Sound" tab since I read that it might reappear that way.

Nothing helps.

Do you have any other solutions?

Best regards.

tryjn · Answer

I finally found out how to get the volume and network icons back  I had to reinstall the audio and Ethernet drivers   now it works perfectly!!   bye!

marineparis · Answer

Thank you so much for the little messages. I had lost sound on my PC after accidentally deleting it. I re-downloaded the drivers and was able to restore the little icon thanks to these forums, so there you go, thank you, thank you all!

scorpio · Answer

Thanks a lot, 20k euros worked!!!

Surfer · Answer

Thank you PC-Serviteur, it worked for me ;)

pc-serviteur stagiaire · Answer

Just a little clarification, if you still can't see these icons after doing this, go to the notification area (at the bottom right), right-click, then in the menu, choose properties, here normally if the manipulation has been done correctly, you will be able to check the boxes "sounds" and "network" again! :)
Have a nice day and keep going everyone!!

pc-serviteur stagiaire · Answer

To share my experience, personally I find that it happens (too often unfortunately) when I unplug the power cable and turn on the PC powered only by the battery, knowing that it also happens even when my PC is not connected to the internet, so I don’t think it’s the updates, but it’s possible too, why not :)
Take care and looking forward to helping each other :)!!

joaninha76 · Answer

I just found the solution in another topic (solution given by Lou:

"The solution was to close the explorer. Right-click on the taskbar -> Task Manager -> Processes tab. Then you need to find "Explorer.exe", right-click and End Process.

The taskbar and Vista windows close, only the manager and the background screen remain.
Still in the manager -> Applications tab -> New Task... -> type "Explorer.exe".

Vista comes back with the sound, battery, and network icons. The greyed-out boxes are no longer greyed out."

It worked very well. So I hope this helps!
Have a good day.

Gobzilla · Answer

... I had the same problem and relaunching the explorer worked very well (even though I read over how to do it three times beforehand because I was scared of the process :P). Thank you!

Belfegort · Answer

Thank you Johanina! Everything worked as expected.

essai · Answer

Unroll the XP registry keys

Code:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\upnphost]

Click on "start" on the right side and set the value to 4.

Code:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SSDPSRV]

Click on "start" on the right side and set the value to 4.

azidiols · Answer

Thank you to PC servant !!!!! Awesome ....

francis · Answer

I wanted to tell you that the "thing" from joaninha76, on October 26, 2009 at 11:11:15  works perfectly under XP.  Thanks to her, I found all my icons back in the taskbar.

jpl510 · Answer

Thank you for the tip to recover the volume icon!  JP

moimeme80 · Answer

Good evening, it's great that it's working properly. The sound icon and the network icon have been restored. I followed the instructions to the letter, a bit apprehensively, but it works great. For users who have the same problem, go ahead without worry; I have a laptop. Perfect, thanks again for this information.

fp1954 · Answer

I understand your apprehension! But as you could see, everything is going well!

Now, you should know that all of this is just a temporary fix...

At the first opportunity, Windows will take over again and once more forget to display all the icons.

You'll then have to repeat this simple maneuver.

Still, it's better to use this solution than nothing at all...

Windows can be particularly annoying sometimes... and stubborn!

nathaloche38 · Answer

# Right-click on an empty space in the taskbar > properties # Go to the Notification area tab and check both Volume and Network boxes, then confirm the changes.

fp1954 · Answer

nathaloche38 If this topic was opened, it’s precisely because the maneuver you’re suggesting doesn’t always work. People here were asking for another solution. I recommend that you read what others are saying; it’s interesting to see what others write sometimes. It helps avoid repetitions!

anonyme · Answer

Well, I'm coming as an anonymous user to bring back your icons. From experience, it's because your PC starts up too quickly. I recommend setting a password for your administrator account, turning off the PC, rebooting it, and then waiting for a good 2 minutes before entering the password! You'll see that your icons will come back as if by magic! There’s my advice!

fp1954 · Answer

I think it might be useful to read the entire topic, since the reference to the solution is there... tryn... look above! Alright, I'll do a copy-paste for you:  "The solution was to close the explorer. Right-click on the taskbar -> Task Manager -> Processes tab. Then you need to find "Explorer.exe", right-click and End Process.  The taskbar and Vista windows close, leaving only the task manager and the background screen.  Still in the task manager -> Applications tab -> New Task... -> type "Explorer.exe".   I would add that all this works fine under XP.

ADAMA DIENG · Answer

All of this takes time and I seriously doubt it could solve the problem.
You just need to follow this step:
click on "Start"
right-click on an empty space in this window (just to the right of the arrow at the bottom)
click on "Properties"
click on Toolbars
check the "Windows Media Player" box and then apply
then
click on the notification area
check the "Volume" box and then apply
and finally OK and everything becomes OK

anonyme.95 · Answer

Hello, I have a big problem, I have lost all my desktop icons, I don't even have the wallpaper anymore, at one point it said that I have a problem with my hard drive and that my personal files are in danger, so I don't know what to do and I would also like to know how this happened, thank you for answering as soon as possible.

Womxar1997 · Answer

I'm using XP and my volume icon disappears from the taskbar every time I restart; I have to redo the same steps to get it back each time.

Disappearance of the sound volume icon

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