Dear Group: After I followed recovery steps given by forum members I have noticed some colateral damage. (i.e. about a 9.5 on my wired-sh*t-o-meter) I have run a 'safe mode' virus scan with Norton. I have run WinDoctor several times to fix problems. And here is the problem with the Task Bar. When I check the box to 'Show Quick Launch Icons' they appear in a second row above the 'Task Bar' icons that show open folders, etc. When I try to pull the task bar down to one row, which usually bunches the 'quick start' over to the left, I am unable to. And the 'task bar' is not locked. Futhermore, on the 'task bar' near the 'Start' menu icon I now see a vertical row of little dots. When I mouse over the dots the mouse pointer turns into that little horizontal double arrow that indicates I can move something. But I cannot move anything around in the 'task bar' like I could before I had the recovery issues. So what's up with that? I don't even have a clue. TIA!! wayne

Dear Group: One more thing I just noticed. When I go to the properties for the 'task bar' I cannot see 'inactive icons' even when I check the box that says 'Show Inactive Icons'. This is really strange. I hope someone can help me. TIA!! wayne

It sounds like you have an easily-fixed problem actually... The vertical rows of dots are moveable - you can drag them left and right to "size" the quicklaunch. there are actually to sets of these... You probably accidentally dragged one and didn't realize it, and messed it up... I have seen it quite often... Try this... First (purely to increase visibility of what u r looking at) drag the taskbar upwards so it is 2 or 3 rows tall... Then you should be able to clearly see both rows of "dots". Play with them (drag them around) and after each positioning of the dots, try makin your task bar only 1 row tall again, and see if it's fixed. From what I recall, it's like the right and left bars are switched or something weird like that... I have seen others do it, and I have fixed it, but it is weird because i always wonder how they managed to do it, and never realized they had done it. The inactive icons issue... try changing the setting, clicking ok, and then changing it back, and see if that fixes it. Perhaps windows just got stupid.

Dear Matt: Thanks for the relpy. Unfortunately I cannot move the vertical row of dots like you are supposed to be able to. And this is what is really wierd - the task bar is NOT locked. And I tried to change the settings and then changing them back and no luck. I haven't a clue. Any ideas? Thanks Matt! wayne P.S. You may have a point about windows getting stupid.