Volume, Battery (Power) or Network Icon Disappear or Missing from Vista Taskbar Notification Area (System Tray)
In Windows Vista notification area (previously known as system tray or simply systray) at the end of the taskbar, there are always a few system icons that show status and allow adjustment control of some system components, such as clock, network connections, sound volume and battery power. If any of these system icons are missing or disappearing from the notification system tray in Vista, users can easily make these invisible hidden icons to unhidden and appear visible again in the Vista taskbar’s notification area.
To fix and restore the missing system icons in Vista notification area or system tray, right click on the black/empty space on the system tray itself, or on the taskbar. In the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog window that appears, click on Notification Area tab if it’s not already there.
In the System Icons section, tick the check box for Clock, Volume, Network or Power components to display the corresponding icons in system tray.
Sometimes, the check boxes may be disabled and grayed out probably due to third party drivers that want to show manufacturer’s icon instead. Thus users cannot change the setting to display the system icons at taskbar. In this case, click on Customize button in the Icons section at the end of Hide inactive icons option. Locate the icon items that represents the component or program you want to display in notification area, and then select Show or Hide when inactive from the behavior drop down list. Make sure it’s not Hide that’s been selected.
If the check boxes are grayed out or disabled, there is a fix to show the notification are system icons again.
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November 12th, 2009 13:47
Copied sherru too and it worked! (and i was skeptical it wouldnt cause thats always my luck). thanks! woo hoo!
October 24th, 2009 02:26
closing explorer from task bar and starting it again as explained by sherru ( response no.330 really worked well…my missing battery icon is enabled this way
October 17th, 2009 06:01
Well, this doesn’t help me much. I go onto the Notification Area, but then it show the boxes, however I am unable to tick the box, because it’s blocked, or something..
help?!
October 7th, 2009 11:46
thank you for this post. I am now able to see volume and power status in the tray at the task bar. I’v been trying to fix this for some time now. Thank you a million!
September 20th, 2009 21:57
I followed Shannon and Sherru and my problem is solved!! Thanks guys
August 24th, 2009 01:33
thank you sherru!! my volume icon disappeared without reason, and this method got it back! i was cursing vista but it’s back to normal (for now)..
August 11th, 2009 02:55
i tried what you said in the article but when i click the customise button, the sound and battery symbols aren’t there.
???
June 20th, 2009 12:15
Thanks Mulcher,your suggestions solved my screensaver problem,too, which I have had for months.
March 17th, 2009 07:31
Hi Guys,
Some of these solutions you seem to have to do it every time. to stop it for good you need to disable universal plug and play. This page is from Microsoft, so they shuold know!
Just go http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555555
March 5th, 2009 13:10
Thank you very much for this article.
February 9th, 2009 14:39
I just experienced this today after installing Avast Anti-viral software. My battery icon disappeared and it was not available when I tried to check the box. For a simple method that took 5 minutes give this a try.
1. Close all programs, and shut down the laptop.
2. Remove all power supplies (battery and power cord)
3. Drain remaining power by pushing the power on button for 30 seconds(while you have no power supply)
4. Put the battery back in and boot up the computer
5. Once booted completely, right click the system tray and select properties
6. The boxes should now all be selectable
I hope this helps someone else who thought all was lost.
January 3rd, 2009 15:27
Thank you…I was so worried, and I thought I will have to take my laptop to the Sony Showroom, and the nearest one here is around 12 kms from my home….
But you solved my problem within seconds…thank you very much
January 1st, 2009 02:11
[...] of these system icons can disappear, missing or hiding from systray area. The easy solution is to re-enable the showing of system icons on Notification Area tab of Taskbar and Start Menu Properties. However, sometimes, even the [...]
December 28th, 2008 18:36
I’ve suffered with this Vista problem for over a year. The solution that works reliably is the “kill explorer.exe” solution – this always works, and doesn’t require a restart. Thanks for your help everyone – I got the solution from here.
December 28th, 2008 07:31
Listen To Sherru!
It Workss Seriously!
December 23rd, 2008 14:47
The solution of ending the explorer process and restarting it works perfect!!
You have to make sure and go back into the Taskbar and select power and network status,etc.
Thanks to Shannon and Sherru for the follow-up explanation!
Early Merry Christmas and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
December 21st, 2008 11:38
I don’t know if this works every time, but it just worked now … go to System, then Device Manager, then to Sound, disable that (don’t restart), and then enable (don’t restart), and it’s back up.
December 3rd, 2008 09:23
Hey, great advice, it works EVERY time… meaning this problem keeps happening to me! What the heck is going on? Is there anyway that I can get rid of the iconstreams and never have them come back? what is an iconstream anyways?
This is really frustrating… Vista is starting to really piss me off!
November 29th, 2008 08:44
“Shannon is right. If any of the icons go away, all you have to do is open task manager, go to the processes tab, end the process called “explorer.exe”. When you do this, the start bar should disappear. Next, all you do is in the task manager, click File, then Run and type in “C:\Windows\explorer.exe” (but without the quotation marks). Then, the start bar comes back, and all the icons should be there! Great job Shannon.”- Jimmy
I followed exactly this and it solved the problem. The battery icon reappeared promptly.
thanks!
November 16th, 2008 08:03
Excellent solution!!
thumbs up…
November 3rd, 2008 08:24
Somehow, all the options are greyed out and when I checked the customised, all were set to be “hide when inactive”. It’s really annoying as the power, volume icons just disappears for no reason suddenly.
October 7th, 2008 02:05
Thanks for the solution, ending the Explore.exe and then restarting it solved the problem on my Dell Inspiron
October 2nd, 2008 16:59
Comment #19 worked to get my battery status back, but not my audio controls. Maybe a reboot will help there? Whatever the case is, it’s time for me to put myself to sleep, forget the computer.
October 1st, 2008 00:08
I played a few settings to make protection … Administrative tools / local security policy / security option … and do not know what I did as the network icon appears as disabled, but I still connection.
September 28th, 2008 14:36
Comment # 19 worked perfectly for me, just disable then re-enable the battery in device manager and the power option gets un-grayed
September 21st, 2008 15:10
““What would be hiding the volume/clock?
I can’t get them to show up.”
You’ll have to edit the registry to repair those.
BACKUP your registry first before doing the following:
1. Click Winkey + R to open the Run Command box and type “regedit”.
2. Click Edit/Find and type “iconstreams”.
3. Delete all KEYS with the name “iconstreams” and “pasticonstreams” until they can’t be found in the registry.
4. END EXPLORER.EXE AND RUN IT AGAIN.
THIS IS AN AWESOME SOLUTION !!!
THANK YOU VERY MUCH..
September 12th, 2008 08:52
I have tried all the above solutions to no avail. My icons buttons are still greyed out. Do you have any other suggestions thanks.
September 10th, 2008 20:22
do not edit the registry -that is wrong
this is an icons cache problem+u dobnt need the darn thing -jus clik start+connect to-SORTED-1 lessn item on the d/t
u dont NEED that icon+its usually windows update that does this
JESUS DO NOT MESS WITH REGISTRY!!!!!
IT WILL RE APPEAR AFTER A CACHE PURGE ANYWAY-AGAIN U DONTR NEED THE DARN THING
September 10th, 2008 20:21
do not edit the registry -that is wrong
this is an icons cache problem+u dobnt need the darn thing -jus clik start+connect to-SORTED
September 9th, 2008 06:18
no meu pc naum apareceu eu procurei procurei e nem vi o meu é vista ???
q q eu faço me ajuda
September 9th, 2008 02:29
I just did the kill to explorer, got back the power icon but still can’t seem to get back my volume or network icons.. any ideas?
September 6th, 2008 00:27
On a week old sony vaio (SR series)
A simple kill to explorer (from the task manager) and run it again – solves it
so… vista do have some bugs in it…
September 5th, 2008 10:45
Well when my battery icon disappears I just go to the system and look in the device manager under battery. Select your battery and disable then re-enable it. Then the check box in your taskbar properties should let you select it. Now all should be back to normal.
September 3rd, 2008 02:22
Restarting the explorer.exe process is enough. You don’t have to edit the Registry
September 1st, 2008 12:52
““What would be hiding the volume/clock?
I can’t get them to show up.”
You’ll have to edit the registry to repair those.
BACKUP your registry first before doing the following:
1. Click Winkey + R to open the Run Command box and type “regedit”.
2. Click Edit/Find and type “iconstreams”.
3. Delete all KEYS with the name “iconstreams” and “pasticonstreams” until they can’t be found in the registry.
4. Reboot Vista.
VERY GOOD SOLUTION.
DO NOT NEED TO REBOOT. JUS END EXPLORER.EXE PROCESS AND RUN IT AGAIN WITH TASK MANAGER.
PROBLEM SOLVED IN ONE MINUTE INSTEAD OF REBOOT”
This works well for me however when i restart my computer the next time the same problem occurs. Is there a more permanent fix? Dont wanna have to regedit everytime i start up my lappy!
August 29th, 2008 21:26
Thanks!! The Explorer.exe thing worked!
August 22nd, 2008 11:46
Shannon is right. If any of the icons go away, all you have to do is open task manager, go to the processes tab, end the process called “explorer.exe”. When you do this, the start bar should disappear. Next, all you do is in the task manager, click File, then Run and type in “C:\Windows\explorer.exe” (but without the quotation marks). Then, the start bar comes back, and all the icons should be there! Great job Shannon.
August 22nd, 2008 03:48
Thanks guys. the regedit worked.
August 12th, 2008 00:12
[...] this website Vista __________________ Calling an illegal alien an "undocumented immigrant" is like [...]
August 4th, 2008 00:54
Thanks both kaipukai and shannon for posting the instructions on how to edit the registry. My “volume” and “network” were grayed out and not in the customize section. Editing the registry worked great!! Thanks again.
PS – It’s my own damn fault for purchasing a computer with Vista. Next time Linux
July 11th, 2008 23:40
my network connection box has dissapeared from my notification area and is not letting me tick it when i go on to the properties
can you help me please because it would be very helpful
thanks
July 4th, 2008 20:38
“What would be hiding the volume/clock?
I can’t get them to show up.”
You’ll have to edit the registry to repair those.
BACKUP your registry first before doing the following:
1. Click Winkey + R to open the Run Command box and type “regedit”.
2. Click Edit/Find and type “iconstreams”.
3. Delete all KEYS with the name “iconstreams” and “pasticonstreams” until they can’t be found in the registry.
4. Reboot Vista.
VERY GOOD SOLUTION.
DO NOT NEED TO REBOOT. JUS END EXPLORER.EXE PROCESS AND RUN IT AGAIN WITH TASK MANAGER.
PROBLEM SOLVED IN ONE MINUTE INSTEAD OF REBOOT
June 7th, 2008 00:31
Okay i have the Samsung R60Plus, if this happens to you like it did to me follow these instructions:
1: Restart your PC
2: Right Click your start bar (one along the bottom) and go to properties
3:Select Notification Area and then do either one of two things
A) Select the icons you want to bring up
B) if those are greyed out like they where for me, then select customise and reenable them there
IF THIS DOESNT WORK
Turn your laptop on and run its battery down to nothing, until it shuts itself completely off
Then follow the steps again whilst its on charge
Good Luck
May 18th, 2008 08:32
[...] Just 10 minutes after posting this problem, I found the solution. This link was helpful: Volume, Battery (Power) or Network Icon Disappear or Missing from Vista Taskbar Notification Area (S… I had right-clicked on the Notification Area, and selected "Customize Notification [...]
May 1st, 2008 17:32
It magically reappeared for me as well. Did I mention how much I hate Vista?
Thanks,
Glenn…
May 1st, 2008 15:46
ok I dunno how but this time when I went to the task bar properties, in the notification area tab, the power option was not grayed and i could select it to make it appear in the systray again. It surely is a relief.
The only unusual thing I have done is that in Control Panel > System > Advanced System Settings > Advanced > Performance > Settings I selected ‘Adjust for best performance’ under visual effects. By default it is on ‘Let windows choose whats best.. ‘
If its not for this, then its the regular windows update that has fixed the problem.
Cheers!
Prem
May 1st, 2008 08:58
All I had to do was restart my computer. lol
Try it.
May 1st, 2008 04:53
“Just recently my power icon has vanished from the notifications area. May be it was because I installed sumthn, not sure really. I tried your above solution but my power option is grayed and its not available in the customize button either.”
Prem –
I’m having the same problem, have you found a solution?
Thanks,
Glenn
April 17th, 2008 15:19
Hi,
Im using a lenovo 3000V200. Just recently my power icon has vanished from the notifications area. May be it was because I installed sumthn, not sure really. I tried your above solution but my power option is grayed and its not available in the customize button either. Could you help me out with getting my power icon back in the notifications area?
Thanks!
Prem
March 30th, 2008 09:52
“What would be hiding the volume/clock?
I can’t get them to show up.”
You’ll have to edit the registry to repair those.
BACKUP your registry first before doing the following:
1. Click Winkey + R to open the Run Command box and type “regedit”.
2. Click Edit/Find and type “iconstreams”.
3. Delete all KEYS with the name “iconstreams” and “pasticonstreams” until they can’t be found in the registry.
4. Reboot Vista.
March 28th, 2008 05:52
“Sometimes, the check boxes may be disabled and grayed out probably due to third party drivers that want to show manufacturer’s icon instead. Thus users cannot change the setting to display the system icons at taskbar. ”
What would be hiding the volume/clock?
I can’t get them to show up.