Usually the Volume icon is sitting in my laptop’s System Tray, and I use it several times a day, to turn the sound up or down. But occasionally it disappears – usually after an update or after installing some software.
The Missing Icon
The Volume icon disappeared again this morning, and I’m describing the steps to fix it, so I can refer to this blog post the next time it happens.
NOTE: My laptop is running Windows 8.1, so the steps might be different on other systems.
I could see the Volume when I clicked the little arrow at the left of the System Tray, to show the hidden icons.
If I clicked that icon, a few sound commands appeared, and I could click those to adjust the sound. But who wants to make that many clicks to adjust the sound?
Try the Easy Fix
The easiest way to show an icon is to turn it on, so that is the first thing that I tried.
- Right-click on the clock, at the right side of the System Tray.
- Click the Properties command
- Find the system icon in the list, and if it is Off, try to turn it On.
As you can see in the screen shot below, the Volume icon was Off, but greyed out, and I couldn’t turn it on.
Click OK to close the System Icons window.
Try the Scary Fix
If the easy fix didn’t work (and it never works for me), you can try the fairly easy, but a little scary, fix.
Read through these steps, to see what you’ll be doing, and then try the fix (at your own risk!) I’ve never had a problem with it, but there is a stomach-churning moment when the background goes black.
- First, open the Task Manager. I use this so frequently that I’ve added the icon to my Taskbar, but you can press Ctrl-Alt-Del, then click Task Manager.
- Click the Details tab, to see what’s running
- Find the explorer.exe task, and select it
- Click End Task
When the confirmation message appears, click OK. (Be prepared – this is when everything in the background goes black!)
Create a New Task
Next, you’ll create a new Explorer task.
- In the Task Manager, click the File menu, and click Run new task
- In the Create New Task window, type: explorer.exe
- Click OK
The Volume Icon Is Back
If the fix worked, the desktop should reappear, and you should see the Volume Icon in the System tray. Hooray! Now you can adjust the sound level, and life is back to normal.
If the fix didn’t work, you could try the Registry change that is described on the Microsoft website. Remember to follow their advice, and make a backup of the registry first.
Black Coffee
And now that the Volume icon crisis is over, I’ll grab another cup of coffee, and get back to work.
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