Volume icon missing from notification area

In WInVista you do this DIFFERENTLY from WinXP:
Rightclick on taskbar-->properties-->click on "notification area" tab
above-->select "show Volume"
Done!


*****************In case the above doesn't work*****************:
If "show volume" option is grayed out, it means either hardware itself,
hardware driver or Registry is bad.
I will NOT advise about Registry because it's personal and there're other
peopele on this Forum who may add to my response, I do my registry on any
day with eyes closed, very comfortable but if someone else fouls up their
machine I don't want to be blamed, SO other than Registry here're other
methods:

That means your Audio devices AND/OR Services are disabled.

Check if you can re-enable in:
a) ControlPanel-->System-->Device/Hardware Manager-->see if any Audio device
is shown with exclamation mark, yellow, red or another sign of distresst, if
so go into its properties (right-click on it) and see if things can be
fixed/re-enabled.

b) Then run Services (type "services.msc" in Windows Start button-->Run).
Find these 2 services and check if they're RUNNING, if not - start them (if
disabled, change to manual or automatic if you don't want to go thru this
pain every time).

*) Windows Audio (servicename = audiosrv)
**) Windows Audio EndpointBuilder (servicename = AudioEndpointBuilder).

Note: if you try to start one of these and it's complaining on dependency on
another, then start that other services and go back to the first, and now
you can start the first w/o dependency problem.

If none of these work, it's possible you have a hardware problem, something
is unplugged, etc.
You may also try before blaming hardware, go back to
ControlPanel-->System-->Device/Hardware Manager
and click on troubled Audio device -->UNINSTALL DRIVER.
Then go back AGAIN to the same place, click on "scan for hardware changes"
and it will find bad audio device again, this time rightclick and select:
UPDATE DRIVER, follow onscreen prompts, this is how I fixed coworker's
office soundcard, and I am an Electrical Engineer, not really computers.
It maybe slightly different on your computer, but you get the idea?
Uninstall hardware & reinstall.
That shamed our PC tech who was supposed to fix but couldn't. This fix has
nothing todo with more likely problems related to those 2 Windows Services I
mentioned or disabled hardware, this has todo with driver, not hardware per
se.