Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge OT - need a WinXP guru....

I know, it's a bike forum, but I also know there's some pretty savvy puter gurus on here...
I'm looking for a little help fixing a minor puter problem that is probably self-inflicted.
I have 8 external devices connected to my computer, some USB and some Firewire. Normally, when you start up a WinXP computer, there is an icon in the task bar for both the volume control and for recognizing external devices. Mine is missing on startup. I know I can go to control panel/sounds and audio devices and click the box to "place volume control in the Task bar", in fact, I put a short cut for that on my desktop. But I want it to do it on startup again, as it's a slight pia to do it manually.
I have done a lot of "tweaking" in the last year or so and somehow managed to disable this automatic feature. Any ideas on how I can fix this would be appreciated...

Go to the control panel and double click on the Sounds & Audio devices. This will open up another window. Put a tick in the box named: Put volume icon in the task bar. Click on apply then click okay. That should do it.

FrankW

Thanks for the reply Frank, but that's the problem. Clicking "Apply" only turns it on for the current session. There is a service or something that is disabled or changed to manual so it doesn't run on startup. I've searched through all the settings and searched MS's website and googled for an answer and couldn't find anything.

Have you typed msconfig into the Run dialog (off the Start menu) and tried disabling items that load at startup to see if a program is overriding your settings at boot?

I have several programs that allow me to do that without using msconfig, in fact typing msconfig into the run box does nothing. So one of these programs has "assumed control" for that.
I don't have the technical vocabulary to explain this properly I guess...
Point is, I probably "tweaked" something I shouldn't have.
I'm looking for the service (rt click My Comp icon/manage/services) or a registry setting or whatever it is that will re-enable the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in the taskbar when the computer is started.
It's not a big deal, just a minor annoyance.

8 external devices!!! holy cow!!!
Let me guess...
1. Modem
2. Printer
3. Scanner
4. Extra HD -250 gig
5. iPod Dock
6. Camera
7. Tablet
8. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7fInBYiR5s

Tried this?

Yep, tried that. Just tried it again and both the volume control and Remove Hardware icons were marked "Always Show".
They don't however. Tried resetting defaults, then changing them again. No luck.

Thanks for that anyway.

And the 8 devices are 5 external hard drives, 1 external DVD writer, 1 external CD writer, and a "video box".

I suppose you've tried removing all of the USB devices and rebooting. Have you rebooted in Safe Mode and run msconfig to read the list of start-up items?

Are you afraid of the Windows registry?
I can provide you the steps.. "under the hood" doing a registry hack, within REGEDIT

Tried the "safe mode/msconfig" - doesn't work there either. No, I'm not afraid of the registry or Regedit. I've "hacked" the registry up on other occasions.

A little background...
I share this computer with my son, a fine young lad, who knows how to do a lot of things on a computer that I never will, but he has no clue about spyware, viruses, malware, adware, resource hogs, etc. He also has never found a social site (MySpace, Facebook, etc..) that he doesn't have to join and interact with. Not to mention music sites and other, shall we say, "nefarious" sites.....

Needless to say, I have become somewhat familiar with a lot of cleaning/tweaking programs and run several once or twice a week just to clear out the sludge so I can come visit yunz once in awhile...
I am running Trend Micro antivirus. I have used Adware, Spybot Search and Destroy, and PestPatrol in the past. I'm currently using CCleaner, RegCure, Uniblue Speedupmypc, and Iolo's System Mechanic for all my cleaning/tweaking needs. And I've had to "go under the hood" now and then.

So yes, I would appreciate knowing how to enable the volume control/remove hardware taskbar icon at startup by editing the registry.

Send me a pm if you wish, or do it here. And thanks..

Might be worth it to get your kid a cheap computer to keep yours running well. That's what we did. Some really nice ones on Ebay cheap. Had a problem with one the guy sent a call tag fixed it and sent it back. (it was a fan failure) got it back and it worked for a few days and had another issue that seems to be another fan problem. The guy is sent another call tag and is just going to send a fresh unit this time. Very nice guy and good to deal with, we bought 2 from him and the other one works flawlessly so I don't think it's his product we just got a lemon. These are refurbished but for just a couple bucks more, $345 including several upgrades, you can get a fresh not refurbished unit. I would have to look again for details and they are on Wendy's computer but I know when I bought my computer the same thing would have cost over $2000. I know my system is out dated but I like it and it does everything I need it to.

Here is one of the cheap refurbished units we got for the kids. refurbished

I would have to check with Wendy to see if it's the same guy.

It would be even easier if he'd move out and get his own computer... but kids don't seem to want to do that anymore. I'd have to set up a network for a second computer, wired or wireless, and I'd still be responding to "Hey Dad, Can you fix my computer?"

Just trying to help. I have the same issue but at least I don't have to fix my own computer and don't have to fix Wendy's as often. Our kids also visit facebook and myspace and don't update any of the protection and they often even disable security because they think it's a pain to deal with. They never clean temp files and shut off the antivirus scans,allow all cookies and so on. I have told them both I am not fixing them anymore if they can take reasonable care and precautions. Recently one stopped working and she now has no computer and isn't allowed on ours. The other daughter got the cheap one I posted but she paid for it.

P.S. She is 21 with twins and lives at home. She does at least pull her weight though.

Google for 'missing system tray icons'. There is quite a bit relating to the UPnP service (Universal Plug & Play). This one seems comprehensive.

Computers are pretty much like old Ford pickups and Craftsman lawnmowers -- the more you swear at them the better they work

On a lighter note, most of the prop hats at the google result tend to lean toward a shortcut to a workaround, instead of a solid fix.

http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2007...-hardware-icon/

I would think said newly minted shortcut could then be dragged to the start menu or left side of the task bar, instead of hunting for it on the desktop if the windows key (+ m) is not available.

At this point it may be worth giving this a try:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_emerutils.htm

PM sent (steps for manual registry editing)
Good Luck!