Windows 10: How do I turn the system icon for sound on (currently off; greyed out)

For some unknown reason, the system icon for sound no longer displays on my task bar. I went into Properties, Notification area 'Customize', Turn System Icons On or Off, see that the Volume is turned off, but it's greyed out and I can't turn it on. I can't figure out how to activate this switch so I can flip it on. Anyone know why this might have occurred and how to fix it? Thanks!

:)

 

Windows 10 Missing and greyed out volume icon fix!

Help! I'm also having trouble with a greyed out volume button since the Windows 10 upgrade on

September 17. When I go into Settings, Taskbar, Turn System Icons on or off, the volume button is greyed out. What can I do to change that?

 

Volume Icon missing Windows 10

<p>Upgraded to Windows 10 and now I can't get the volume icon to display in the system tray on the task bar. The turn on/off switch is greyed out in 'Turn System Icons On or Off' section of Settings, so I can't turn it on from there. How do I get the volume
icon back in the system tray so I can easily adjust the volume level?

 

Hi, if you're lucky a simple restart might fix that according to this:
System Tray- Volume grayed out - Windows 7 Help Forums
but there's also this for Win 10:
Windows 10 System Icons in Notification Area Are Grayed Out

 

Did the sound ever work on the laptop under Windows 10?

I've gotten a grayed-out control when there were no drivers installed for the sound device.

If that's your problem, I'm not sure what to suggest. The latest drivers at HP are for Windows 7:

http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp59001-59500/sp59154.exe

(Dated from 2012). You could try them, perhaps installing them in compatibility mode.

 

Hello tohashome, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

Double check to make sure that you have the latest audio driver installed, and see if step 9 in OPTION TWO below may be able to help.

System Icons - Enable or Disable - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

Thanks. Restarting didn't do anything. I also followed the path laid out in the 'Windows 10 System Icons in notification Area Are Greyed Out' link.

• Hold down the Windows Key and press the “R” key the bring up the Run window.
• Type “regedit“, then select “OK“.
• Navigate through the registry to the following location:
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER
  • Software
  • Classes
  • Local Settings
  • Software
  • Microsoft
  • Windows
  • CurrentVersion
  • TrayNotify
• Look for two values. One named “iconstreams” and “PastIconStream“. Right-click and select “Delete” each value to remove them from the registry.

Everything was going fine until I clicked on the 'CurrentVersion' folder. 'TrayNotify' wasn't listed at all. The only folder displaying was 'Deployment.'

 

Thanks, but link not found. Not Found

The requested URL /pub/softpaq/sp59001-59500/sp59154.exe was not found on this server.

 

Yes, I did used to have a sound icon after the installation of Windows 10. All of a sudden, it wasn't there any longer. Again, I see the toggle is greyed out to flip it on again. I just don't know how to ungrey it so I can activate the icon again. Puzzling.

 

I think you clicked on one a wrong reg key, There is no Deployment under TrayNotify:

 

Sorry. I usually check links to verify that they work before allowing a post to stand, but I didn't do it this time.

The link at the HP support site appears to not work. I didn't find a good link to sp59154.exe, but it may be out there.

 

Try to run CMD and enter following, then restart.

reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop" /v "HungAppTimeout" /t REG_SZ /d "10000" /f
reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop" /v "WaitToKillAppTimeout" /t REG_SZ /d "20000" /f

 

Thanks. You're right, I probably did click on a wrong reg key. I went back through the path and deleted the two reg entries per below, restarted, and this did fix the problem and displayed the speaker icon in the task bar again:

I also followed the path laid out in the 'Windows 10 System Icons in notification Area Are Greyed Out' link.

• Hold down the Windows Key and press the “R” key the bring up the Run window.
• Type “regedit“, then select “OK“.
• Navigate through the registry to the following location:
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER
  • Software
  • Classes
  • Local Settings
  • Software
  • Microsoft
  • Windows
  • CurrentVersion
  • TrayNotify
• Look for two values. One named “iconstreams” and “PastIconStream“. Right-click and select “Delete” each value to remove them from the registry.

Thank you! Also thanks to everyone who contributed toward a solution. Sincerely appreciate it!

 

Good job! Persistence pays off (some times) *Smile