# Missing network and sound icon in notification area HELP HELP



## bluegarfield (Nov 26, 2007)

How come my network icon and sound icon just simply disappeared from the notification (task bar) when I started up my laptop using vista. I have tried to right-click on tasbar > properties > Notification Area > ... But the system icons, I means tick boxes for sound and network are grayed, and I'm unable to choose it. Are there any way to fix it, could anyone pls help me. Thanks


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## jcgriff2 (Sep 30, 2007)

Vista (and XP to some extent) has had problems with disappearing icons and shaded icon selection boxes for some time now. The area on the bottom right of the screen in which they are located is called the Notification Area (System Tray/systray in XP). The icons are similar to shortcuts. However, shortcuts can generally be found somewhere in your folders and are easily edited. Not the Notification Area icons. They are in Vista's cache. A cache is a consortium of executed commands & programs or accessed files that the system has determined are utilized more frequently than others. In Vista, this frequency-of-use is what Superfetch tries to learn about you, the user. These executables and files are loaded into the cache where the CPU can fetch (access) them must faster than it can calling for them from main memory. There is a level-1 and a level-2 cache in Vista. It's all about resource management.

There are reported solutions to your problem, however, I must tell you that I have found these to be temporary at best. So many times, after reboot, cold boot, or logoff/logon, I have found an icon(s) missing. Under one user account, I have never been able to recover the network icon. 

If you are comfortable using REGEDIT to edit the system's registry, here is a link that explains the icon recovery/cleanup process very well:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/clean-up-past-notification-icons-in-windows-vista/

*>>>> NOTE - ALWAYS back up the registry prior to editing.*



Another method is easier but does not seem as effective is to go into the System Notification area of the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties (right click on START, select properties), select "Customize", change 2 or 3 icons from "Hide" to "Unhide", click OK, click Apply, click OK, then logoff and logon again. 

Microsoft is very aware of this problem. However, based on what I have read to date, MS does not seem to consider this a major enough issue to act. Future Vista service packs may address this, though.

Good Luck.


Regards. . .
jcgriff2


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## gourav.keshwani (Jun 7, 2008)

Hi Guys,

i had faced similar problem and i fixed it in this way:-

a) goto start-->run
b) regedit
c) take backup of your registry
d) search iconstreams
e) delete all pasticonstreams and iconstreams key under iconstreams folder until iconstream can no longer be found in registry.
f) restart vista
g) If sound icon is not there then goto-->taskbar properties-->notification area-->check on volume icon-->apply-->ok

cheers problem solved,ray:


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## 1true3 (Oct 14, 2008)

Thank you ray: this was a real aggravation and I had no idea how to fix it! The solution was so much easier to execute than I expected.


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## jcgriff2 (Sep 30, 2007)

Glad to hear that this worked for you.

Considering thread (and my post as well) is > 9 months old, I am now closing this thread to future traffic.

jcgriff2

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