Windows 98 volume control went bye-bye!

If you mean that the entire control panel has dissapeared (as in Start>>Settings>>Control Panel is gone), then I have no idea (other than a policy turned bad). But it doesn't sound like that's really what you mean. So, I'm assuming you mean that the user's volume control (in the system tray) has dissapeared. In that case, try the following:

1.) Go to the control panel (Start>>Settings>>Control panel)
2.) Open up the Multimedia control panel.
3.) Make sure the Audio tab is selected.
4.)Under playback, there should be a checkbox that states "Show volume control on the taskbar"
5.) Make sure that's checked. If it is already checked, try unckecking it, hitting apply, then rechecking it.
6.) Apply.

That's the only thing I can think of right now. If I think of anything else to do, I'll post it.

Start>Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs>Windows Setup

Scroll to Multimedia click once

Click Details

Locate Volumn control and click it on
Click OK
Click Apply
Reboot

If Volumn control is already on click it off
Click OK
Click ApplyReboot
And then do the top half of this again.

Good luck

Mark

Check to see if you have a Voice Modem. That maybe the default playback device in Multimedia properties. Change it to your sound card. If that does'nt work, disable the modem WAV driver in device manager.

TM

I like the comment about the user asking you why. Maybe you should ask the user why but all to often the reply is "I just switched it on and it was like that".
Anyway, if the above answers fail you could try restoring an older registry. By default Win98 gives you the opportunity to restore a registry from the last 4 days that it was switched on. Here's the walkthrough.

1 Get to a DOS prompt
2 Type "SCANREG /RESTORE" (No quotes)
3 Pick a date which is before the problem occurred, (if it's not too late).
4 Restart when prompted
5 Cross fingers.