Volume Control in System Tray is Gone !!

1) go to Control Panel | Sounds and Audio Devices and click the Volume tab to check the box labeled "Place volume icon in the taskbar."

2)  Step 1 usually fixes the problem.  But if that option is greyed out or the volume control is still gone - you may need to reinstall the volume control:

  1. Insert your XP installation CD in the CD drive.
  2. Click Start | Run and type:
    EXPAND -R [CD drive letter]:\i386\powrprof.dll\Windows\System32
  3. Go back to the Run box and type: regsvr32 stobject.dll
  4. Run the "Restore Volume and Net Icon in Notification Area" script (#320) at:
    http://www.winxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=040713HT-Restore_Volume
If that doesn't work, try this:
  1. Make sure the XP installation CD is in the drive.
  2. Click Start | Run and type: cmd. This opens a command prompt window.
  3. At the prompt, type: : (this switches to your CD drive).
  4. At the drive letter prompt, type: CD\i386 (this switches to the i386 folder on the CD).
  5. At the folder prompt, type: expand -r sndvol32.ex_ :\windows\system32 (this expands the Sndvol32.exe file to your System32 directory on your hard disk.