The incredible disappearing taskbar

Nerissa

I'm not 100% sure what I did... I was re-organizing my desktop & toolbars a bit, trying to get everything where it is most convenient, when I realized that my taskbar (not the whole bar, just the part that has the icons of currently-running programs) was gone. My Quick-Start toolbar is taking the whole space between the start button and the area on the right where the clock and stuff is. I can add & remove other toolbars (including the language bar) on that same bar just fine, but I can't seem to find the actual task bar part.

Anyone know wtf happened, and, more importantly, how I can get it back?

This is the computer I have dedicated to work (I telecommute), so any loss in productivity is going to hurt me pretty badly, although I can still alt-tab between programs, so I should be functional.

PirateJon

Nerissa wrote:

My Quick-Start toolbar is taking the whole space between the start button and the area on the right where the clock and stuff is.

Make sure the toolbar isn't locked, then click and hold on top of the task bar and drag it up until it's taking up a half the screen. You'll see you running programs and the textured areas that are the toolbar boundaries. Then you can drag everything around to how you want it.

Deckman

Assuming this is the problem, is your taskbar locked? If it isn't, you should be able to change the size of any toolbar (like Quick Launch) by clicking and dragging its border. Since you said the toolbar is taking up all the space, making it smaller should reveal the windows that have magically disappeared.

EDIT: PirateJon's method sounds good too.

Nerissa

The task bar is not locked, and I tried that. I end up with half the screen filled with my quick-start bar, which won't move if there aren't other toolbars there with it to change places / proportions with. The textured bar to the left of the quick bar takes up the whole height rather than only part of it like it would if there were other bars on different lines. When I put my mouse over the bar, it does change to the "resize" cursor, but dragging it doesn't seem to have any effect. Oddly enough, if I manage to take the quick-start toolbar off (into its own window), the whole damn thing goes away and I can't get to my start button, clock, etc. and when I put it back I have to drag the bar up from 0 "rows" afterwards (but I can't seem to do that before I put at least one toolbar back on the bar)

Messing around with how much horizontal space different toolbars were taking down there is (I think) what got me into this mess in the first place. I'm pretty experienced in how they work, but I've never had anything quite like this happen before.

embrik

I'd try this tool
Alternatively, there are several registry keys that likely need fixing.

From the same site, here's the regkeys

Not having a broken taskbar, and not being at work with my test systems, I'm not sure whether this will help, but it probably will. Oh, and not that I think it will make it worse, but try the tool/regkeys at your own risk.

Nerissa

embrik wrote:

I'd try this tool
Alternatively, there are several registry keys that likely need fixing.

From the same site, here's the regkeys

Not having a broken taskbar, and not being at work with my test systems, I'm not sure whether this will help, but it probably will. Oh, and not that I think it will make it worse, but try the tool/regkeys at your own risk.

That fixed it, thanks!