I`ve lost my little `speaker ( volume control ) (FIXED IT ! )

[#1]

I`ve lost my little `speaker , on the bottom right of the task bar.... It was there yesterday...
but somehow I have now got to use IDT HD Sound control panel, which is not so easily accessible... there does not seem to be a "disable" option on the icon popup... and on the Control Panel > Taskbar and Toolbars. > Notification area, > select system icons to show ...... the Volume control option is greyed out... so can`t select it from there...
Am assuming the the IDT Audio panel has "taken over" and hidden the access...  
Any ideas?
EDIT... it is NOT "hidden"  it aint there ! !  

[#2]

It's one of those things that just happens; I've seen may a system where system tray icons just disappear, with the speaker being the commonest.
You can restart explorer to "reset" them and they often reappear for that session; in fact I created a little batch file to do exactly that.
Put the following commands into a .bat file (I called mine trayicons.bat and saved it on the desktop) and just run it (doubleclick on it):
@echo off
taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
start explorer.exe

[#3]

Sorry not sure how/where to do that... and how to exe it   

[#4]

I'm not sure HPsausce's advice is necessaary here,  and I've seen the exact opposite, i.e. restarting explorer makes some icons disappear (as the app doesn't put them back)..
This may be of help... http://www.pcworld.com/article/239618/how_to_restore_missing_system_tray_icons.html

[#5]

Quote from: kmilburn

I'm not sure HPsausce's advice is necessaary here,  and I've seen the exact opposite

Which is why I qualified my comments with "can" and "often", but if all else fails it's worth considering.
The Microsoft "Fix-it" linked to via that PCworld page is quite handy, haven't seen that one before.  

[#6]

The aparent randomness of the task bar and icons behaviour is one of those windows anoyances that was fixed in windows 8 - they did away with it - almost. In control panel  > sound and audio devices > there should be a tick to [almost] always show an icon on the task bar.

[#7]

Right click in the sys tray where it should be, then choose properties and turn it back on

[#8]

Thanks very much for all the suggestions !....
in my original post I stated....  " on the Control Panel > Taskbar and Toolbars. > Notification area, > select system icons to show ...... the Volume control option is greyed out... so can`t select it from there..."
however, I have just re-visited that, and lo and behold... I had the option to "check" the little boxes and restored the icons that were missing...
Weird...?  Or  What !...
all is fine now... thanks again...