Solved Systray sound icon gone

[RoWin7]

--I've already tried all of these:
How to Recover the Volume or Sound Icon to Your Windows Taskbar
--I have tried rebooting.
--I never combine icons in my systray

--I don't have the box to check saying "Place sound icon on taskbar."
-- In "change System icons" in Control Panel>Sound, I can't change the box from "off" to "on" Do I need a registry tweak?
--And I have 8 entries on that page for Macrium Reflect, but it's not a problem

This was fine until a few days ago. I haven't added any software except the July Security Update, and no new hardware.

I was able to insert this icon in the systray, but it's a PITA to use because it opens the Realtek settings dialogues: Control Panel>RealtekAudio Manager
I don't look for instant gratification, and I'm willing to use this temporarily.

 

[iko22]

The Sound Icon can be disabled via Group Policy, in a Policy named Remove the volume control icon. Check your GPO that this Policy has not been Enabled. Enabling the Policy disables the Icon. Hope that helps.

 

[RoWin7]

I definitely would not have changed a Group Policy, as I would never go there myself without guidance.

Group Policy is open. Don't see anything about sound. If it were there, under what topic?

 

[iko22]

The Topic is under User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar > Remove the volume control icon

If you dont normally go into Group Policy, then that is probably not the answer that you are looking for, but it still might be worth a check, just to eliminate the possibility.

 

[RoWin7]

It says "disabled;" all the others in the list say "not configured." Most of this stuff is already controlled by Classic Shell. I rebooted, but it's still missing.

Is there a way to tweak this with a registry entry?

 

[RoWin7]

Icon returned today.

!!!???