Error “the Audio Service Is Not Running” When Opening the Volume Mixer in Vista

Q: The speaker icon in the Notification area has a red cross on it. When I hover my mouse over it, it says The audio service is not running. When I right click on the it I get 3 options (Playback devices, Recording devices, Sounds) There is also an open volume mixer option but it’s greyed out.

Solution

1. Click Start, type Services.msc in the Start Search box.

2. Scroll down the list of services, right-click Windows Audio and select Start.

3. Select Properties for Windows Audio and set its Startup Type to Automatic.

If the Windows Audio service does not start and you get the error Error 1068: The dependency service or group failed to start, then make sure that the following services are started and their Startup Type is set to Automatic.

• Plug and Play
• Multimedia Class Scheduler
• Windows Audio Endpoint Builder

Error Message: "Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator"

This error is caused if the DisableTaskMgr restriction is enabled. To enable Task Manager, try one of these methods:

IMPORTANT:  If this restriction was enabled in your system without you doing anything or without your knowledge, then it's highly likely that a Virus has blocked the usage of Task Manager in your system by enabling the DisableTaskMgr policy via the registry. I strongly suggest that you perform a thorough checkup of your system immediately. Steps listed in the Resolution section of this article helps you unblock the Task Manager, but that does not remove the Virus (if any) from your system.

Method 1

Click Start, Run and type this command exactly as given below: (better - Copy and paste)

Method 2

Download and run this REG fix and double-click it.

Method 3

• Click Start, Run and type Regedit.exe
• Navigate to the following branch:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies\ System

• In the right-pane, delete the value named DisableTaskMgr
• Close Regedit.exe

Method 4:  Using Group Policy Editor - for Windows XP Professional

• Click Start, Run, type gpedit.msc and click OK.
• Navigate to this branch:

User Configuration / Administrative Templates / System / Ctrl+Alt+Delete Options / Remove Task Manager

• Double-click the Remove Task Manager option.
• Set the policy to Not Configured.