Solved: Windows Task Bar has arrows and tiny icons

I have had a strange thing happen to my task bar. It looked normal until I had a computer lock up after installing a new virus program called Kaspersky. My lock up happened right after I installed the new virus program and started removing the McAfee program that came installed with the computer. The computer is only a few days old.

When the computer restarted instead of the regular task bar at the bottom of the screen my task bar shows two little icons with no words and a up down arrow bar. If there are more than two items opened you have to use the up down arrow to find the screen you want and click on it. This is very annoying because I am always working several things at the same time and it takes for ever to keep going back and forth with these little arrows.

I am one of your clueless users. I have been off line for 8 years with no computer. Things have changed drastically since I last worked with computers. My last operating system was ME and I still worked through DOS a lot because that was what I was comfortable with.

I am telling you this because I am having to relearn everything to do with computers and am very clueless about many things. I do follow instructions pretty well. <G>

I have used the right click on the area where the task bar is and these are the checked items: Lock the task bar

Under properties: everything is checked except auto hide taskbar.


I have windows Vista on a Dell Studio laptop if this helps. I am not sure what else I need to tell you. Thanks for your help.

nightwinds

 

I would try System Restore.

 

Nightwinds,

Take a look at the screenshot posted in this (<-- link) thread. Does your taskbar look like the one in the screenshot (sounds like it does judging by your "If there are more than two items opened you have to use the up down arrow to find the screen you want and click on it" comment).

If it does, you can remedy your situation by following these simple instructions:
1: Right click the taskbar and choose Lock the Taskbar to unlock it.
2.Grab the divider (which should look like a 3x6 dot formation) to the left of your taskbar buttons on the right and drag them over to the left towards your quicklaunch buttons (you can either leave all your quicklaunch buttons visible or compact it down to 3 or 4 and give yourself a double arrow button to click for a pop-up menu to give you more space on your taskbar).
3. Relock your taskbar (this step isn't entirely necessary, but it's a good idea).

 

No my screen does not look that way. It is the task bar itself that is messed up, not the windows. I have gone back several restore points until before I had a problem and the restores were successful but I still have the task bar problem.

I looked up how to take a screen shot and I am uploading the shots I took to the site. I hope I can make it work right.

In the first picture I did the entire bottom of the screen. You can see the up and down arrow. and a file folder. This is not a bad problem but it is very annoying. The second picture shows half the tool bar so you can see it better.

Should I do more restore points???

Thank you for replying, I hope I do the upload corredt.

Nightwinds

 

I just realized how to make the picture bigger in the link you gave me and the task bar IS the same. Just not the windows. Sorry about that. I have never seen the windows do that stacked thing and could not see the task bar at the bottom until I accidentally clicked on the picture. I told you I was green <G>

Let me follow your instructions and see if I can fix it.

nightwinds

 

That was an easy fix and you have no idea how much I appreciate your time. I am so sorry to have bothered you for something that basic.

Do I need to do something with this thread to show that you have solved my problem?

I hate to say it but I will be posting other silly basic problems until I get up to speed with new computers.

Is there a site you recomend to learn more about things in "NON TECHNO GEEK"


nightwinds

 

No need to be sorry!

Just like the homepage of this site says..."There's no such thing as a stupid question, but they're the easiest to answer!"

There should be a box at the top of the thread to mark this as solved.

 

Well I figured out how it originally got changed a few minutes ago because it happened again.

If I have a freeze on windows and it shuts down the folders (like pictures and documents) it comes up with the setting like previously described. Should Vista be changing the settings this way???

I relocked the tool bar after I followed your instructions while ago. Was that a mistake? I thought if the bar is not locked it can move or hide if you accidently hit a key. I also thought if the bar is locked it could not be changed but something is happening.

It is an easy fix to reset the bar but I would really like to know why it is changing itself when the windows lock up.

I am have a lot of lock ups and I am still trying to figure out why. I did a search on the web earlier about lock ups and it sasys there is a report that will give you possible solutions. I have not found that report yet.

Do I need to repost a new topic about this item???

Thank you

Nightwinds

 

No. Vista should not be doing that.

Honestly, the lock/unlock status of your taskbar is a personal preference. However, I generally keep my taskbars lock on my systems. You are somewhat correct, if the taskbar is not locked, it can move or appear to be hidden. While it is unlocked, you are capable of dragging it around the screen and place it on any side of the screen (I have a couple friends that like to have theirs on the top of the screens, and it drives me nuts when I try using them; but they are Linux geeks too (Linux has its menus/taskbar at the top of the screen ). You can also resize the taskbar by grabbing the top edge of it (your mouse icon will change to an up/down arrow like it does when you vertically resize a window); thus making it bigger or compacting it down to the bottom of the screen (giving it the appearance of being 'hidden'). There is, however, a built-in option to Auto-Hide the taskbar which will make it disappear until you drag your mouse to the area where your taskbar is (which will make it reappear). You can enable/disable this via the taskbar properties (right click on the taskbar and select Properties).

Vista keeps a record of all problems it has. You can access this record by going to Start > Control Panel > Problem Reports and Solutions. This will allow you to see what kinds of problems Vista encountered as well as the ability to report them to Microsoft and get feedback as to how to resolve them.

In regards to the locking up issue you are having, my guess is that it may be related to the whole antivirus 'switch-a-roo' you did. Typically, when you change antivirus software, the current (in your case it was McAfee) should be uninstalled prior to installing the new. Perhaps something got messed up when the OS recognized both antivirus programs installed (even though it was only for a short time). My suggestion would be to uninstall Kapersky, reboot, then reinstall it and see if your lockups still occur.

I'm not exactly a moderator here, so I don't know the rules for this type of situation. However, my guess would be that since the original issue has been resolved, this thread should be marked solved and a new thread should be started focusing on the lockup issue. But, as I said, I'm not entirely sure on this kind of ruling. Wait for a moderator to come by and make the judgment.

 

Thank you. I will mark as solved and repost if reinstalling the antivirus does not stop the lock ups. The report showed about 30 lock ups in the last couple of days.

I appreciate your patience.


Nightwinds