How to Restore the Volume Control to Your Windows System Tray

A frustrating problem with Windows XP and Vista is the loss of your volume control from the System Tray. These three steps give easy ways to recover the icon and its associated control.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Windows XP or Vista
• A little experience with Windows Services or the willingness to learn.

1. 
    
   Green PC audio port

   The basics are first to make sure you have a set of speakers with power plugged into your machine. Simple systems plug in the green receptacle on the front or back of your machine. Also of note is many speaker systems require external power by way of an adapter/transformer/"charger" that plugs into house current.

2. 
    
   Vista's Taskbar Properties Notification Area Tab

   If you have Vista, right click on the Start button and choose Properties. Click on the Notification Area tab and make sure that the Volume box is checked.

3. 
    
   Sound and Audio Devices applet from the Control Panel

   If you have XP, go into the Control Panel, and choose "Sounds and Audio Devices". On the Volume tab, be sure the checkbox "Place volume control icon in the taskbar" is checked. You can also try right clicking on the Start Button and choosing "Properties". On the Taskbar Tab, check the box that says "Hide Inactive Icons", but choose "Customize." Find the volume icon and change the display settings to "Always Show".

4. 
    
   Universal Plug and Play service configuration window

   For both Vista and XP, if the previous steps don't work, open the Services applet, by typing "services.msc" in the Run box on the Start menu. In the Services app, stop and then disable "UPnP Device Host" and "SSPD Discovery" services. You stop a service by double clicking on it and choosing the Stop button and disable it by choosing "Disabled", in the Startup type drop down box.

5. 
    
   Kelly's Corner tip #320 highlighted

   If you have XP and the services stopping trick didn't fix the issue, there are some registry changes you can make. The changes have been made into a file on Kelly Theriot's Registry Edits for Windows XP "Tweaks and Tips" page. The registry file to use is #320. Just download it to your desktop and then double click on the file to add the changes to your registry.

6. 
    
   An image of Sndvol32.exe maximized, may literally be the program whose system tray presence is the volume control speaker icon

   For XP, another method is to replace the Sndvol32.exe file. If that file is damaged or missing, you must extract a new copy of the Sndvol32.exe file from the Windows XP CD and save it on your computer's hard disk. This method requires you to have your Windows XP installation CD. Note If you do not have access to the Windows XP CD that contains the installation files, ask the network administrator for help if the computer is at your workplace, or contact Support. To extract a copy of the Sndvol32.exe file from the Windows XP CD and save it on your computer’s hard disk, follow these steps: 1. Insert the Windows XP CD into your computer's CD drive or DVD drive. Press and hold the SHIFT key as you insert the CD to prevent it from starting automatically. 2. Click Start, and then click Run. 3. Copy and paste or type the following command in the Open box, and then click OK: cmd
   The command prompt opens. 4. Type the drive letter of the CD drive or DVD drive, type a colon, and then press ENTER. For example, if your computer’s CD drive is drive E, type the following, and then press ENTER: e: 5. Copy and paste or type the following, and then press ENTER: cd i386 6. Copy and paste or type the following, and then press ENTER: expand sndvol32.ex_ system_root\system32\sndvol32.exe Note system_root is the path and folder name where the Windows system files are located on your computer. This is usually C:\Windows. If the folder that contains the Windows system files on your computer is C:\Windows, type the following, and then press ENTER: expand sndvol32.ex_ c:\windows\system32\sndvol32.exe Note There is a space between "ex_" and "c:\windows" in this command. 7. Type exit to exit the command prompt, and then press ENTER. 8. Verify that you can start Volume Control and that the Volume icon is displayed in the notification area (if you selected this option in method 1).

7. 
    
   Device Manager screenshot with a sound card opened up displaying a functioning driver.

   Another major reason for no volume control is no installed or a malfunctioning driver for your sound card. Open Device Manager by typing "devmgmt.msc" in the Run box in XP. In Vista you can type "Device" and in the Start Search box just above the Start Button. That should be enough for Windows to find the Device Manager. Your sound card should probably have a yellow exclamation point next to it indicating a driver problem of some kind. If you have just reinstalled Windows remember you need to reinstall the sound card driver. Many times of course, motherboards have sound cards built into the motherboard. This doesn't mean that they still don't need a driver. So drag out your motherboard driver disk or your separate sound card driver disk if the sound card is separate from the motherboard (maybe less common these days).

Resources

• Kelly Theriot's Registry Edits for Windows XP
• Microsoft's XP article on how to restore the sound volume.