Windows XP sound control question: How can I get the icon for device volume to stay in the taskbar?

When you restart, sometimes Windows will force things to shut down before they have finished saving their configuration. I have had it lose various settings this way. Try logging out and back in; this seems to be gentler.

Right-click on the task bar, select properties. Down at the bottom, Next to "hide inactive icons, select "customize", click on the drop-down next to "volume", and select "always show". Voila.

Voila. No, this doesn't do it. It's marked "always show" but it's also under "past items" instead of "current items."

http://winhlp.com/node/16

Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Sound and Audio Devices -> [X] Place volume icon in the taskbar.

Awe shit, didn't see the [more inside].

This is a major PITA but it might help. Start --> Run --> msconfig This will load up the start-up configuration tool. Begin by disabling everything at startup, make sure the volume control is set to show, then reboot. (MSconfig panel will pop up at startup, telling you that you have disabled some items: don't let it re-enable them, just close it.) Does it stay put? If yes, then something is messing with it on startup. If no, something may be messing with it on shut-down: Make sure it is set to show, then reboot again (leaving all startup items disabled). Does it stay put? Hopefully, yes; in which case start adding startup items in one at a time, then rebooting, until you figure out which of the various startup items is the culprit. You will likely spend a lot of time rebooting. Sorry, but there aren't really any other ways to narrow down the problem.

Not that it's any consolation, but I've been trying to track down this exact same problem for three years now. It's in my cold case files.