Hi all... Odd problem. I'm using Windows Vista, and yesterday, the volume control icon failed to appear in the bottom left corner of the screen (aka the system tray aka the notification area). I right-clicked that area to bring up Taskbar and Start Menu Properties in an attempt to add it, and the box was greyed out... along with the boxes for the clock, network and power. The network and power icons were also missing from the corner. I searched the internet and got some nothing solutions.

I restarted and the icons were still absent, but when I went back into Taskbar and Start Menu Properties, they were all available to be clicked! clicked them all and that problem solved.

Round 3: this afternoon I logged on, and the volume (and power) icons are missing. When I look at Taskbar and Start Menu Properties to amend the icons, Clock is available to be ticked and be unticked; Volume is greyed out and unticked; Network is available to be ticked and be unticked; Power is greyed out and unticked. And accordingly, the clock and the network icon are there in the corner. What's going on!! Why is my volume control missing from the corner? All I did beforehand was update my Flash player from the Adobe website. Help!

I can't think of anything to solve it directly, but have you tried a system restore?

Nope, I'll use that a last resort... In the meantime if I can find or be told of a registry setting that will sort it, that would also be sufficient

I found this:

http://winhlp.com/node/16

if that is any help at all

Cheers Lew, I ended up doing nothing, and when I turned the laptop on today everything the icons were all present and correct... Any changes, I'll re-post here!

I'm afraid this is one of those things that has to be filed under Vista and just accepted!

And before anyone says, yes, I am and have always been a Microsoft fan, but I wouldn't touch Vista with a bargepole

(sorry, not much help)