Why did the volume control icon disappear from my taskbar notification area in Windows XP?

A. To display the volume icon in the taskbar notification area, you must select the "Place volume icon in the taskbar" check box in Control Panel Sounds and Audio Devices applet. If, when you try to select this check box, you receive the error

ErrorWindows cannot display the volume control on the taskbar because the Volume Control program has not been installed. To install it, use Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel.

you need to copy the sndvol32.exe image from your commercial XP installation media (not a vendor-supplied "recovery" CD-ROM) to the system32 folder by performing the following steps: