This always worked on stubborn PC’s in Windows 7 and should work in Windows 8
- Back up the Registry by creating a restore point. Or When you start regedit, Save a copy before editing.
- Go to Start > Run (or Windows-key + R), type in regedit and hit OK.
- Navigate to the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify.
- Delete the values IconStreams and PastIconsStream.
- Open up the Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), go to the Processes tab, select explorer.exe and click End Process.
- Open the Applications tab and click New Task at the bottom-right of the window.
- In the message box that pops up type in explorer.exe and hit OK.
- Explorer.exe will reload, and the missing icons should now be back in the system-tray where they belong.
- Then if the volume bar isn’t there, go to taskbar properties (where the volume was gray) and simply tick the box.
http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/screenshots/u/Lh/1370622792066-2300.png