Vista - Sound Icon in Taskbar Problem

When I go to "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" and click on the "Notification Area" Tab I see that under "System Icons" that the only one I can check is the Clock; all the others are grayed out and I can't check them, however, I had a Sound Icon in my Taskbar previously that has for some odd reason simply disappeared, and since I can't check on it here, I can't seem to get it back in my Taskbar no matter where I look on the computer. How can I restore this option so that I have a Sound Icon in my Taskbar again, and are the other two features--Network and Power, a problem being that they too are grayed out?

Thanks for your help.

Hello Ccantare, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Sometimes a simple logoff and logon, or restarting the computer, can restore it for you. If not, then the tutorial below may be able to help you restore the icon.

Notification Area - System Icons

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Well, that's just great ...I chose the How to Reset and Clean the Notification Icons List in Vista option, ran it, and it did result in the Sound Icon reappearing in my Taskbar (although the Power Option is still grayed out under the "Notification Area" Tab), but it also took away the Taskbar's ability to hide inactive programs even though that's checked under the "Notification Area" Tab when in the Task and Start Menu Properties, and now I don't know how to get that to hide the inactive apps that I don't want to look at in the Taskbar. So now what should I do?

By the way --in reference to that last reply, I did already try a rebooting to see if it will reactivate my Taskbar's ability to hide inactive applications there.

This tutorial can help show you how to "hide when inactive" the icons again.

Notification Icons - Customize

You misunderstand however --that's exactly the problem. All the Settings are correct: everything is set to "Hide when inactive," but the little left arrow that appears at bottom left in the Taskbar is gone, and nothing there will hide anymore. It basically got lost in the shuffle somehow when I reset everything the way I explained in my previous message.

Never mind --the little arrow just reappeared on its own finally after about twenty minutes and hid all the inactive icons. I guess it needed some time to reset for whatever reason, which is weird, but thank you very much for you help -- I really do appreciate it.

You're welcome CCantare. I'm happy to hear that it seems to have sorted itself out.

thanks brink.. help me a lot