When you start your Windows Vista computer, the Volume Control icon may be missing from the Notification area. Also, in the Taskbar properties – Notification tab, the checkboxes for Clock, Volume and Network may remain grayed out.
Simply logging off and logging on to your user account helps in most cases, if this is not caused by a Policy setting. Alternately, you may try terminating and restarting Explorer.exe to see if that works. If that does not help (and your computer is not part of a domain), use the instructions below to unlock the Notification area icons.
Registry Fix
Download trayicons.reg and save to Desktop. Right-click on the file and choose Merge. Click Yes when prompted for confirmation.
Note that the previously mentioned REG file removes the following Registry-based Policy values in your system:
- HideSCAVolume
- HideSCANetwork
- HideClock
- HideSCAPower
Additionally, it clears the IconStreams & PastIconsStream values as suggested in Microsoft KB945011.
Important: After running the .REG file, you need to terminate and restart Explorer.exe for the change to take effect.
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restarting explorer.exe fixed the issue..thanks a lot
This was a great help. I followed the link to restart explorer.exe and it resolved the issue. Usually my techie cousin fixes these issues but I was impressed with the easy to follow directions. Thanks!
Thanks a lot!!
Starting and restarting explorer.exe did work for me!!
trayicons.reg is downloading as a text file, and when i right click on it i don’t see merge as an option. Any suggestions?
I as well have been banging my head against my keyboard. I recently flashed my bios, and updated my webcam driver, after a few hours i realized my network icon was missing. I checked my notification area in the task bar properties and network was greyed. Ive checked the gpedit config, every reg fix i could find, ive done it. Im about to give up hope and do a fresh install and pray the flash didnt cause it. Does anyone else have any suggestions?
it worked on win7 7100 build
thanks a lot
Thanks–
Starting and restarting explorer.exe did the trick!!
I wonder why restarting the machine does not do the same thing?
I’ve been knocking my head on my desk for weeks. My icons would disappear, grayed out in the notificaitions tab, of course. Thanks!
The registry fix solved it for me, this should really be propagated around some other sites as I know that people still have this issue unresolved.
Hi, the solution “terminating and restarting Explorer.exe” really did the job, thanks a lot!!!