The volume control icon has disappeared from the taskbar

Whoever is needing help restoring the volume icon right click the task bar then click on properties then processes then highlight explorer .exe then click end process at the bottom then click users and highlight and then click logoff at bottom. It should restore your volume icon it worked for me just make sure you close all other open sites and programs so you wont lose unsaved data. Someone gave me this advice from this site and it really works I have Wndows 7 Ultimate but it should work for all windows and by the way explorer exe is restored back to processes in the task manager just thought you should know that.

This post is years old, but Windows just did an update and I lost my volume control icon.  I've tried everything I could and can't seem to get it back.  Did you have any help with this or figure out how to fix it? Thanks Angela

If you are like me and are fed-up of the non-helpful replies so-called MS experts give then do a bit of digging yourself and you always find the solution!!

For people running Vista or Windows 7 this worked for me!!!

1. Click Start.
2. Type "regedit" in the search box and hit enter (If prompted for admin password or for confirmation type the password or click allow).
3. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify
4. Go to the details pane and delete the "Iconstreams" and then "P asticonstreams" registry entries. You can do this by right clicking and selecting delete.
5. Exit the registry editor and open up the task manager (press Ctrl+Shift+Esc).
6. On the Processes tab click the explorer.exe process, and then click End Process.
7. Restart explorer.exe by clicking File, New Tasks (run). Type **"explorer"**in the box and hit enter.
8. Exit task manager and you should see that the missing icons have returned.

If this hasn't worked for you, you may need to follow these additional steps:

1. Click Start and type Customize icons. Click Customize icons on the task bar.
2. Click Turn system icons on or off, and then set Volume, Network, and Power System to On.
3. Click OK, make sure that the behavior for Power, Network, and Volume are set correctly, and then click OK.

If these steps have worked for you it may be an idea to copy and paste this guide into a word or notepad document and save it somewhere because it is likely to happen again!

Hope this has helped!!

I did all the steps you suggested but when I go to the notifications tab the option to select the volume is not available.  Any suggestions?