Hello, I'm no computer expert so please bare with me as I try to explain my problem. Whenever I'm on a program and decide to minimize it, it would collapse down to the start bar. An icon would remain on the bottom until I click on it to restore. My problem is now my computer is not showing my start bar and clock. It's like it hides behind the bar that shows "done" or "remaining pictures being downloaded". I think its called the task bar but not sure. I would have to fish for it with my cursor and click blindly below that bar until I hit it then the program would restore. I'll have hidden programs running and not know about them until I click on my task manager to see what's running. This seems to happen only when I'm on the internet. So what do I have to do to re-display "Start bar" and time of day" as well as programs running? thanks

 

pull it up

 

I think this will work. . . . .


Place the cursor over the area where the taskbar should be.
When it comes into view, RIGHT click the taskbar and select "Lock the taskbar" in the dialogue box that appears.

 

If it only happens when you have IE or a different browser on, it's probably the browser.

IE has a View menu item that has an option to display Full screen. This is probably what's happening. Depending on how you have things set up, you might have to find a way to enable the menu bar in IE to see it.

However, it also works with the F11 key -- that toggles it back and forth.

Firefox and the rest almost certainly have the same option.

BTW, you can switch between programs by using the alt+tab keys. It will show you a little display that will activate whichever program you stop on.

Other info
The task bar is the little bar on the bottom that shows all your programs.
System tray is the part where your clock is. Quick launch (if you have it on) is where there are some little icons that allow you to launch various programs. It's just to the right of your start button. Depending on how you have things set up. you can control some of these settings. I have XP set to 'classic' because I hate all of the jazzy newer options that seem to only exist to hide information. (off soapbox). At any rate, somewhere, you have an item called settings that opens to several options including taskbar and start menu.

On mine it come up as an option when I hit the start button.

If you're truly having trouble with the task bar, you want to make sure that this is set to 'always on top'. Sometimes you have to switch it off and on again to get it to work. You also want to turn OFF the item that says hide the task bar.

Someday I'll understand why Windoze has all of these worthless options, MAYBE.

Good Luck,

hj

 

See there ya go Using IE... that is the problem haha