Network and Volume Icons missing from Taskbar

On my son's computer, he recently told me that his volume icon disappeared and that he tried "everything" he could find on Google and couldn't get it back.

So, tonight when i couldn't sleep, I came in to check out his Windows 10 machine and found that it wasn't just the volume icon, but the network icon is missing too.

I went to the normal place to check them, TaskBar Settings > Turn System Icons on or off, and found that they are listed, but grayed out:
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I tried all of the typical solutions that I found online
1). Try another user...problem persists with my account
2). Try "restarted" explorer with task manager. Problem persists
3). Try the following tutorial (System Icons - Enable or Disable | Tutorials) importing in these registry keys and restarting. Problem persists
4). Tried deleting the registry values per this post, How do I turn the system icon for sound on (currently off; greyed out). Problem persists
5). Ran an sfc /scannow
6). I followed this thread, which basically linked to the tutorial in step 3. Network missing from taskbar - grayed out in settings
7). Tried all of the options from this post, both registry edits as well as gpedit.msc. Fix: Volume Icon is Missing in Windows 10 Taskbar


His system is running Windows 10, 20H2


His network works just fine and his audio is working as well.

Device Manager is clean


The missing icons are NOT in the overflow tray area


I haven't reinstalled drivers, because I find it hard to believe that the audio driver and the network driver both got messed up. If it was just one of them missing, then I would have more faith that the problem lies.

Also, he's up to date on his windows updates


anybody else run into this pesky issue where the typical solutions just aren't working at all?

dalchina said:

Hi, any clues as to what happened that may have led to this?
- could you confirm you mean you created a new user, and you saw the same problem when logged in with that account?

Unsure of when the problem started. He let me know a couple of weeks ago and had already been troubleshooting it. Not sure if he noticed when it went AWOL.

I also have a user account on his machine that I can log in with. I used my account and logged in and the problem was the same. So, this isn't something set in his user profile only, but rather something across the machine as a whole. I will create a new account altogether and see what it does.

dalchina said:

Is this Home or Pro? Note there are policies to disable these e.g.


These are presumably the registry keys equivalent to those which you could check in Home
Why are the system icons in the notification area missing and the enable options in the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties window are greyed out? | Sony TH

Yeah, his license is for 10 Pro. And I used gpedit to enable, disable those settings which didn't resolve the issue.

dalchina said:

Have you tried using a System Restore point, if available?

I have not, as I don't know when the problem started.

dalchina said:

Here's a different approach for the power icon / Settings option greyed out:
How to Fix the battery level indicator missing or Grayed Out in Windows 10 - YouTube

Cool I can try this later. Haven't done this yet.

dalchina said:

'Last resort' options:
If your son doesn't have a recent disk image that can be restored, you can try an in-place upgrade repair install which keeps all progs and data. This would seem appplicable if the problem exists with a new user. However, if policies or registry equivalents have been set, those may be respected, and nothing gained.

Yeah, we can certainly do a reinstall, or in-place upgrade repair. Just trying to avoid that for obvious reasons if possible.


Thanks so much for your thoughts and taking the time to help out.

spunk said:

You may be in Tablet Mode, as the On Screen Keyboard icon is visible in your Hidden Icons. Click Notifications on the far right of the taskbar to the right of the time and date and turn Tablet Mode off if it is on.

ooooh, I was hoping you hit the nail on the head.

However, Tablet mode is turned off. What looks like the onscreen keyboard icon is the icon for his Stream Deck.

Thanks for this thought, appreciate it.

Bree said:

Whether enabled or disabled the policy's registry settings will still exist, just their values will change. To remove all the policy's registry settings completely set it to 'Not configured'.

correct, I tried to enable, then disable, and now have it set back to Not configured. I was trying to toggle the options in case it got stuck somewhere.

dalchina said:

... and you can actually check the registry values if you wish as per the link I posted:
Why are the system icons in the notification area missing and the enable options in the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties window are greyed out? | Sony TH

Yes, I went through those steps. Looked for the keys on the machine, and for those I found they were set to 0..which is disabled. To do what it said, I removed them as well and rebooted, and the problem persists.