Win 7 master volume/missing icons issue

[jahcriado]

So, a few years ago I was running into several computers at work where the master volume icon in the task bar did nothing. You clicked on it, right clicked on it, middle clicked on it, doesn't matter how you clicked on it, it didn't work. I also noticed on these same PC's the network/WIFI icon was missing & if you clicked on the more icons arrow in the task bar it often had rows of... nothing. Basically 4x4 grid with like 2 actual icons and the rest were blank. If you moved your mouse over them they would disappear & the icon bubble would shrink. Well, I did a lot googling, running into all of the check Notification Area Icons, stop sndvol in the task manager & blah blah blah, none of those worked. Then I found a Microsoft support page that listed this issue & had a Fix It tool! I DL'd it & it worked! I put this in an easy place to get to on our shared folder and have used it a TON. Well, HAD used it. Last month our newer hire started taking it upon himself to try & clean up the shared folder. Says he didn't delete anything. Guess whats gone? Problem is I con't find it again & in the last year or so almost all MS support page that had Fix It tools for Win 7 have been retired. If anyone knows the long way around to fix this, if its registry or what ever, or if you have the Fix It tool, can you share the wealth? We still have a couple hundred Win 7 machines & will for a couple years. I miss that tool...

 

[The Paladin]

can you not access the control panel sound icon ?

 

[jahcriado]

can you not access the control panel sound icon ?

Thats not a solution to the problem. There is some issue in Windows making the sound slider not available & not showing the network icon. Is this accessible through control panel? Yes. Do 3rd graders & 50 year old teachers know how to get in there to adjust things? No. And we really prefer them not to most of the time.

 

[The Paladin]

sorry, my point was, if you access them through control panel are the sound and network functions accessible and functional?
if not then I would suspect a windows file corruption.

 

[nicolatesla]

can you not access the control panel sound icon ?

Thats not a solution to the problem. There is some issue in Windows making the sound slider not available & not showing the network icon. Is this accessible through control panel? Yes. Do 3rd graders & 50 year old teachers know how to get in there to adjust things? No. And we really prefer them not to most of the time.

Sounds familiar...
IMHO Updates corrupted the registry.
I would do this:
Use system restore if possible to return the system to an earlier date.
OR, reload win 7 using "upgrade" mode and avoid updates, by setting the auto updates to OFF. (upgrade reload of OS will not erase programs or files) BUT it will return the system to an operable state.
I generally avoid automatic updates, because it causes a lot of surprises, and problems.(like corruption of the registry)

BUT you can use "critical" updates manually..which seems to be a friendlier solution.