It doesn’t matter what type of latest Operating System you have on your computer, sometimes something goes wrong always. If you encounter that the volume icon is missing from the taskbar of Windows 10 or 8.1 computer, this post going to be useful.
For some reasons, the sound icon on the notification area may not appear. This could be possibly by system registry/files corruption or sound driver issues by Windows updates or even it was accidentally disabled by someone.
There are several methods available to fix this issue, but we will start with the basic method and then move to the advanced steps. Recently I faced this same issue after upgrading my Windows 10 and one of the following methods helped to solve it.
Methods to Show Missing Volume Icon on Windows 10 or 8.1
Method 1: Let’s try from the Settings up
Search for ‘Turn system icons on or off’ from Windows search and click on it. This will directly open the control box where we can enable and disable the icons in the notification bar.
Make sure that the volume icon is set to show in the notification area.
This is a straightforward method to bring back the missing volume icon from the taskbar if someone or system settings disabled the view. In most cases, this method should work on Windows 10 or earlier Operating Systems.
Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 users can try below method.
Right-click near the clock on the notification area and select Properties.
Make sure Volume icon is set ‘On’ as shown below, if not, enable it.
If this step doesn’t help, click on ‘Restore default icon behaviors’ which may bring back the missing icon.
Read Also: How to get back missing language bar in Windows 8 or 8.1
Method 2: Restart the Windows Explorer
If still the volume icon is missing and you are not able to enable it from ‘Turn system icons on or off’ area as mentioned in the earlier step, then that could be an issue with the explorer process. The following two steps can solve the issue.
a) Kill the explorer.exe from Processes or Details tab under task manager.
Find out all explorer.exe and kill/terminate them, make sure no explorer.exe is running in the task manager. By this time, your desktop will go blank as the explorer service is not running at the moment.
After that, on the File menu select the new process or Run (or new tasks).
Type ‘explorer’ and press OK. It will start the new explorer process. That should bring back the volume icon.
If none of the above methods helped for you, follow the below registry modification.
b) Registry modification- It’s recommended to take a backup before modifying the registry.
Open registry editor in Windows and find out;
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify
Once clicked the TrayNotify, look for IconStreams and PastIconStreams at the right pane.
Delete both keys. Right-click and select Delete.
More information about modifying above registry value is available here at Microsoft site, please visit.
After modifying registry keys, you need to kill and restart the explorer.exe process to take effect.
Few Additional General Steps you Can Try
Here are some of the best practice and general steps you can try to fix this missing volume icon issue on a Windows computer.
- Restart the computer
- Log in with the different user profile and check. This can help in verifying whether the problem is for this particular user profile or all users on the computer.
- Recreate the user profile – if only one user is facing this issue on the computer.
- Do Windows update
- Uninstall and reinstall the sound driver. Better install the latest driver.
I hope one of the above methods would have helped you in getting back missing volume icon on Windows 10 or 8.1 desktop/laptop.
109 Comments
I’m running 8.1 and the 2nd part worked for me also. THANK YOU so much! As soon as I clicked it reappeared! I did notice something different, instead of end process it said restart. That must be part of a recent update so I need to go research that! But I am really thankful, I had tried all of the other fixes in the past and none of them helped, including downloading drivers because mine are up to date. I’m saving this page for future disappearing acts!
It says “Restart” while under the “Processes” tab. It says “End Task” under the “Details” tab.
I’m glad to know that this method works too though.
You can select ‘End Task’, then restart the explorer as indicated on Method 2,a. Hope this helps.
Method 2 worked! My client’s PC has Beats audio installed and it likes to take over the volume and he doesn’t like it. He’s used to the icon being in the tray. So glad to know how to get it back!!
Thank you!
Hi,
Excellent solution! Methode 2, a works perfect!
Thank you very much for your help.
#2 worked for me. I restarted my machine this morning because IE was hung. When it restarted the message reconfiguring 30%complete, came up so I knew an automatic update had occurred since last reboot. After restart icon was not in tray and it would not allow me to turn it on via control panel->notification area icon-> system icons. so I restarted explorer.exe and volume showed up. thanks
Method 2 worked for me, thanks for this simple guide!
Method 2 worked for me also. Hooray!!! Thanks so much.
Thank you for your efficient help. Your advice has fixed my computer.
Method 2 worked for me. Thanks a lot!
awesome. method 2.a worked for me! Thanks a lot!
Killing explorer.exe in task manager cured my volume icon in windows 8.1, thanks I would not have thought of that method.
Thank you. #2 worked perfectly!
none of them helped D;
Thank you the second method worked as i was went to the properties it was the only one shaded so i couldnt but killing the explorer and restarting it worked thanks a bunch
Thanks a million! Method # 1 worked perfectly for me. I also got good results by getting the CONTROL PANEL and working your ideas out from that…i.e. find “Sound” and proceed from there. You are a wonderful person.
mthod 2 worked for me, i just stopped the explorer.exe and ran it as a new task and boom! thanks, this article is of great help!
Thank you for your solution. No 2 worked for me
thanks, it work
Thanks, method2 worked. Win8.1
Method 2 worked for me. For some reason I did not see the File menu but I was able to open a window and used file to open a command prompt. I changed the prompt directory to C:\ then C:\Windows and entered explorer.exe at the prompt and when my taskbar returned, there was the sound icon. Thank you so much for this fix.
Hi,
Excellent solution! Methode 2, a works perfect!
Thank you very much for your help.
+1
THANK YOU SO MUCH BRO,METHOD 2 WORKED.
I did the second method (task manager thing) and it worked perfectly! Thank you so much, I had tried fixing it myself and it was really frustrating, but I’m so glad that these were really clear instructions to follow! Thanks!
Thanks a lot.
method 2 worked for me. speaker icon was grayed out in method 1.
thank you bigly
Method 2 worked for me. Thank you so much! I didn’t want to have to mess with the registry keys… thank you, thank you, thank you!