All these latest post are OT. Probably the Volume icon in the tray area is just hidden by other icons. The “Task Bar and Start Menu Properties” has an option to “hide inactive icons”. Since users are not using the volume icon so frequently, then Windows hides it. Changing the setting ( UN-ticking the check box of that “hide inactive icons” option) should display all available tray icons. In addition, the Volume icon “can” be disabled (independently of the “hide inactive icons” setting). So, if both settings are correct, the icon should be displayed (specially if the sounds are actually being heard).

If I’m not mistaken, this was already mentioned before. The only thing that this topic needs is a simple post with confirmation that changing this specific setting is the “solution”.