This happened to me twice when I was using Windows XP: I just could not enable the Volume icon for at my notification area. Tried as much as I could, there is no way I could make it appear until I found a super long and detailed entry dedicated to fixing this weird error.
A similar problem occurred to me on Windows Vista today: I just can’t make my Network icon show up in the notification area using the usual method:
- Task bar properties
- Notification Area
- Select which system icons to always show
Appears that there is a more advanced fix for it involving the registry and it worked! From Samuel’s blog:
- Run “regedit” (Registry Editor)
- Find “iconstreams”
- Delete all registry keys with names “IconStreams” and “PastIconStreams” until “iconstreams” can no longer be found in the registry
- Restart Windows Vista
- Enable the missing icon using the usual method
Thoughts of a Diurnal 
Hey thanks for the help!!! It fixed my issue with my missing volume icon on my vista system tray.
This worked perfectly!
support.microsoft.com/kb/945011
Thank you, the Microsoft fix you link to worked for me.
Sweet, Very nice fix thanks =o)
Thanks for the help, I also fixed my issue with my missing network icon.
note: there is no need to reboot in my case, will save you some time 🙂
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Thank you so much for the help….it fixed mine once I deleted “iconstreams” and “pasticonstreams” and then rebooted. Once it booted up, the volume and network icons reappeared without me having to go back into properties and re-selecting them. Thanks again!
very nice advice! i ran a registry cleaner and it must have thought it was an unneeded start up program. all fixed now.
I am having a problem still with my Screen Brightness icon is still missing. Any ideas how to get this back? I don’t even know where you would turn that icon on! But it does not show up in my mobility center either. thoughts? ideas?
Thanks man! It solved my volume missing problem! Congratulations
GRAZZZZZZZZIE!!!
Yes, this worked quite fine. Thank you!!
Thanks man, this really worked well! Much appreciated!
Best.
I tried following the suggested solution but it didn’t work. I tried activating the sound from the properties but the checkbox is still coming greyed out. Please Help…..
My volume icon has dissappeared several times and each time I have run regedit and deleted iconstreams and pasticonstreams. Is there any way to stop this happening over and over?
thanka
Linzi 🙂
anmol: Probably you haven’t remove all instances of registry keys with names “IconStreams” and “PastIconStreams”. Find and delete them until you can’t find anymore of them.
linzi: From experience, this only happens when there is a incomplete shut down. Probably you can investigate somewhere along this direction.
I have used the “find” to search for “IconStreams” and “PastIconStreams” and don’t find any. Is there something else that can be causing this problem, or is the only way to find these items to do a manual review of the registry?
Frustrated beyond belief. Ready to switch to MAC.
gso_mom
Thanks a bunch!! Why one earth does this problem occur in the first place though?
Excellent. This method worked like a charm. Many thanks!
Thanks for posting this it was helpful. I am able to select all the icons execpt the power one for some reason now?
I have missing icons in my control panel using Vista Premium Home Edition 64-bit? Is this the same issue. Someone told me that Microsoft has two hot fixes but neither worked?
Nice fix….. Thank’s
Great help, it works!!… thanks.
THANK YOU!! my battery meter, network icon and sound icon were all missing after installing Vista SP1 and the check boxes were grayed out so I couldn’t re-enable them manually. bleh.
Hi, Thanks your tip worked..
Cheers
Vista Business had icons – after SP1 they went away and Properties showed them as greyed out. This restored them to be selected in properties – thanks a lot for your insights.
This worked perfectly. Thanks a Bunch!
this can be accomplished just by logging out and logging back in. according to linzi, this does not permanently solve the problem. anyone have a more permanent fix? why isn’t M$OFT doing anything about this?
pefect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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thanks for the help
PERFECT! worked like a charm!!
Muchas gracias solucione el problema, pero no sabia que lo habia adquirido cuando instale el sp1, lo unico que no pude recobrar es el audio que tenia la barra deslizable de mi note pavillon
A permanent solution will be nice.
Awesome, thanks worked a treat. Didn’t even need to restart, just went into the properties and could select them again.
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exacty what i needed! thanks a lot! =)
Yea it worked great! YOU ARE A LIFE SAVER! Thankx a bunch!
This fixed my network icon, but my volume and power icons are still missing….
Thanks this worked for me.
Just kill explorer and start it again instead of rebooting 🙂
Thanks a lot :3
Restarting explorer only worked perfectly too 😉
It worked for the network and volume icons but not for the battery meter.
Great!!!!!! thanks.
Thanks for the post. This is the 2nd time I have had to do this. The problem occurs following the reboot required by some Vista updates.
thank THE LORD! this was pissing me off beyond belief. fucking vista.
No need for a restart. Open up the task manager, kill “explorer.exe” and then restart it. File->New Task->”explorer.exe” – DONE
Thanks so much for your Excellent Help !!!
Excellent. It all worked! Thanks a lot. And I did not have to reboot
Thank you so much! I tried everything and almost gave up, but it was bothering me so badly, that I looked it up on the Internet and found this…it helped a tons…it even allowed me to click the “Network” button also, under the “Notication Area”…Thanks again! =)
Thanks SOO Much!! Such a great help!
my battery is still missing after trying all the mentioned methods,if any one can help i would be eternaly grateful as this is a major headache
gracias man! ya me estaba empezando a preocupar jeje..
thank you so much i was starting to get worried that i would have to live without a power icon 🙂
Hey thanks for the fix. God I hate vista. I’d like to know what “iconstream” is or does though. Anyone know why it would cause such annoying problems? I’m always interested in a new tidbit of information
I tried deleting this icon that says (Default) but it would let me.the message I got was “unable to delete all specified values”
Great fix! As usual, more (*Y(*^(^($#%@#$ from MS that we have to find a fix for.
It seems that they would start to clean their own house. As a developer it’s a pain to have to deal with stuff that MS should deal with themselves prior to releasing a product.
— F..ing pissed at ms!
Thanks………….that was highly appreciable
It’s people like you that make my day! Thank you so much for this great fix. I have added this to my favorites because the problem will probably happen again. Can you hear my happy shout from Oregon?
thx. Great fix. not sure how you figure that out.
Great Update your website as the first website in google.:)
Bloody good job there. Was pissing me off!!!!!! And this worked a treat :O)
I HATE VISTA.
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thanks!
Great fix!
Exacty what i needed! thanks a lot! =)
Thank you very much
Thanks you saved my day, these missing icons i realy annoying
why are WE all working on our computers all the time FIXING things. shouldint bill gates pay for this he got out money and didint tell me or you about all the wasted time we will wast fixing vista if he did would you have got it anyway anyone know his email or his wifes i want to send him a email with what i think about his work we should all be doing this what do you all think??????
the usual response…. if you don’t want to waste you life always fixing the computer…. buy a Macintosh! 🙂
Thanks, this is what i needed! Good fix using pauls solution
Thanks for the tip worked a charm. 🙂
Oh my god! Thank you sooooo much for your help. I don’t have to Master Reset my window Vista!!!! Thank for a million! You are my hero!!!
I’ve installed Windows Vista Ultimate on my HP nx7300 laptop.Before I had XP Professional.Now I have this problem : volume icon in the taskbar doesn’t respond wyhen I click on it.I have reinstalled Vista Ultimate,but another one,different .ISO size,genuine,no crack.First times,like in the previous Vista,worked…after few times clicking on it to adjust the volume : no response . Volume mixer and sound volume freezed,no response cliking on them.Manually,I can adjust the volume,mute on,mute off.I’ve tried everything,from desinstallig the driver,reinstaling,using other drivers to modifying different settings.Accesing SoundMax from Control Panel works,settings are working,only Sound volume and mixer by clicking on them do not work.The only thing I didn’t tried is modifying something in the registry,because I don’t know.From all I tried ,is the only solution I can imagine for fixing. Anyone that can help,I will appreciate a lot,not only me,but others too that have the same prolem and can’t find an answer. Thank’s
Thanks, worked fine.. Thanks2
great tips !!!
i did and worked very well!
thank u
cumps!
http://betterworldforus.wordpress.com
Thanks sooooo much !!!
It’s amazing!….
Added one more credit feather for me.
Thanking you again..
Thanks so much, this helped even computer illiterate people like me 😀
Thanks! Stopping Explorer.exe and then restarting it from Task Manager was the ticket.
Thank you! my battery and volume indicators are now available in the notification area AND the check boxes are now available (not grayed out)
Mark
Don’t mess with your registry! That’s a disaster just waiting to happen. Go to Control Panel and choose Classic view. Now go to Taskbar and Start Menu Properties > Notification Area.
You should now be able to select which icons show.
this was great thank you so much jo
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What worked for me is to: Right click on the right of the task bar and click on ‘properties’. Then go to ‘start menu’ and switch from ‘classic start menu’ to ‘start menu’.
Then go to ‘notification area’ and then you will see that the ‘volume’ the ‘network’ or ‘power’ box are no longer grayed out.
I did what you said and the volume is still grayed out. Any other ideas?
The MS fixit did not work for my Vista.
Yours did!!!!
YESSS !!
The tricky bit is finding “Command Prompt”, however:-
Got my volume & network icons back.
They disappear randomly after a so called Windows up-date happens.
More like a Windows “down date” I reckon.
My system is “Dell Vista Ultimate”. Should have used a different descriptor than “ulimate” though.
worked very nicely for me! thank you.
man, that had been bugging me for a while.
unfortunately, this fix does not appear to be permanent. my icons are graying out again a couple weeks later. but still an improvement.
i didn’t realize til now that these steps are the same as the ‘official’ Microsoft steps per link #2 above. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/945011
for those not psyched to mess around with registry keys, there is a small ‘fixit’ program there that you can download and run. it creates a ‘restore point’ which offers a measure of safety.
note: when i did this, it didn’t quite work and i had to take a few extra steps. if interested, more on my blog: http://www.webbizgeek.com/notification-tray-icons-missing-or-grayed-out-in-vista/
also…
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we fixed it sound, battery and network connection we did go to notification area it did not let me check on the icons i did with registry and something else and it works thank a lot great tip
THANK YOU SO MUCH, good to know someone has an answer, I spent 40 minutes looking this up today and since I get this problem a lot it should almost be routine.
Thanks = another satisfied customer. Don’t know how it works but it does. You are a hero!!
Am I just thick or what? Most people om here seem to follow the instruction easily, but can someone tell me how, once you are into regedit you find iconstreams – just where is it exactly?
WOW..easy fix and I also didnt have to reboot..thanks for the help!!!!
I can’t find iconstreams.. so?? 😦 what should I do?
NZJ YOU ROCK DUDE!!! samuel’s blog did worked for me! tnx guys keep it up!
Your medication worked for me, nice!
Once I originally commented I clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now each time a remark is added I get four emails with the same comment. Is there any way you may take away me from that service? Thanks!
This worked! Doh je!
The fix work, thanks! But you don’t need to restart the computer, just restart explorer. Go to Task Manager (ctrl+shift+esc), Processes, click on explorer.exe and end process. Then go to File, New Task, type explorer.exe and you are done.
Thanks so much!! it really helps and saved my time.
Worked great, thanks dude.
Terrific! Thank you!
im using dell inspiron 1525 with Vista Home Edition.
I try to do what you post, but still the notification icon is grayed and missing. any other suggestion.. thanks
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work out more strategies on this regard, thanks for sharing.
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thank you very much very helpful solve my problem ….muaks ….
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It did not work for me. I rebooted the machine. Same problem. I accessed the registry and found the two values I deleted as if I hadn’t done anything. The network icon was ‘grayed’ again. I had this problem when I installed Glarysoft Pro utilities, but it just may be a coincidence.
Worked for me! Thanks!
It actually worked!! Thank you so much!
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