So, this morning I applied a performance & reliability update (KB938979) that is supposed to help with a known Vista hibernation issue.  I haven't put my laptop into hibernation to check it out yet but what I did find is that my volume, network and power icons are gone from the task bar.  The thing that I liked was that these were icons that I could have always displayed by selecting them in the properties dialog.  They wouldn't hide after inactivity, sometimes even after selecting them to show by default.  Well, I opened up the task bar properties and saw the following:

What gives?  Why are the system icons disabled?  I WANT to select them.  I WANT to see them.  I WANT to feel all warm and fuzzy inside knowing that they're there.

All I can say now is that I hope this hibernation issue is resolved.  If not, I'm uninstalling this update crap.

UPDATE: After not finding a resolution for this, I've uninstalled this update.  My system icons are back and that makes me happy.