Windows task bar gone crazy... ideas??

[leoblob]

My wife's main computer is the TP360 in my sig. However, she uses a PC-300PL running WIN2K for internet access. Within the last couple of days, the task bar (normally at the bottom of the screen), is now at the left side. Furthermore, the Start button is all the way at the top. I have tried a number of things to fix this, but no luck. I have virus scanned and ad-ware scanned and all is OK. Everything seems to work OK, but I am uncomfortable with something changing like this, with no idea why.

Any ideas on either the cause or the fix? Thanks!

[larrys]

Easy fix.

First, right-click on a blank spot on the task bar and make sure that "Lock the Taskbar" is unchecked...it probably is or you would not have found yourself in this situation

Next, point the mouse to a blank spot just below the start button on the taskbar, and click and drag the taskbar back to the bottom of the screen.

Lastly, right-click on a blank spot on the task bar and make sure that "Lock the Taskbar" is checked, so this does not happen again

[leoblob]

Hi, When I right click on a blank spot on the tast bar, I don't see any menu items or check boxes that even mention "lock the taskbar."

Also, there's zero space between the bottom of the Start button and the line (divider bar?) that's below it. When I move my mouse over this line, I get a cursor with both up and down arrows, but when I try to click and move it, nothing happens...??

[larrys]

There is not much space between the Start button and the divider bar, but move up from the divider bar just until the up/down arrows change to a mouse pointer. Then you should be able to click and drag it back down. I have XP, but hopefully it should work the same way for you. I've accidentally moved the task bar before, and it took awhile before I could find the sweet spot to click and drag it back down. The task bar can be moved to the left, right, or even top of the screen.

[dsvochak]

Like larrys, I don't have a W2K machine readily available but. You should be able to click on a blank space on the taskbar and drag it to where you want it. As he said, if it moved it wasn't locked, so you should be able to drag it back.

[leoblob]

Thank you! After reading your posts, I fiddled around with it for about 10 minutes, finally I got it so it would snap from its position on the left, to the top of the screen (horizontal at least). Then a bit more fiddling, and I got it down to the 'correct' position at the bottom of the screen. ...I must say that this Windows "feature" is about the most poorly human-engineered thing I've experienced from Microsoft in quite a while.

Two very small issues remain: How do I lock it, so my wife doesn't do it again, and 2, the Quick Launch area is now to the right of the taskbar, instead of next to the Start button (on the left)... suggestions on fixing this... ?

[dsvochak]

Took a look at a W2K machine. "Lock the taskbar" may be a Windows XP thing, as it doesn't appear as an option on the W2K machine.

You should, however, be able to drag/resize the quick launch area back by the start button. Look for a couple very fain raised lines and start dragging.

[leoblob]

Thanks! Looks like I'm going to become quite familiar with all this, as she's already moved the taskbar again... this time, to the right side.

[BruisedQuasar]

The task bar (normally at the bottom of the screen), is now at the left side. Furthermore, the Start button is all the way at the top. I have tried a number of things to fix this, but no luck.

I always have the Windows Taskbar "locked". Yet, I have had it suddenly move to the top. This is another example of Microsoft being like Ford Motor, year after year leaving the same goofy problems go unfixed.

Just this morning when I down loaded the Adobe Reader Update 7.0.7 (Adobe is another monopoly publisher of a bloated, over priced goofy program), the Adobe installer-downloader suddenly unlocked my taskbar and turned the components in sill positions and placed it at the top of my desktop.

I know how to move it back and it still takes 10-15 minutes each time to put it back.

Ask a professional typist about MS Word's sudden shift to auto capitalizing the first letter of each sentence. That bug has been in every version of Word for seven years.

[tfflivemb2]

Ask a professional typist about MS Word's sudden shift to auto capitalizing the first letter of each sentence. That bug has been in every version of Word for seven years.

FWIW, there is an option to turn that off. I have Word 2000. Click on "tools", then "AutoCorrect...". You will then see a box that you can uncheck called "Capitalize first letter of sentences"

[FRiC]

Took a look at a W2K machine. "Lock the taskbar" may be a Windows XP thing, as it doesn't appear as an option on the W2K machine.

You should, however, be able to drag/resize the quick launch area back by the start button. Look for a couple very fain raised lines and start dragging.

The taskbar is quite different between 2K and XP. In XP it can be locked, similar programs can be grouped, and if the taskbar gets crowded, they overflow to the next page and scroll buttons appear. Unfortunately, I usually tend to open many windows at once, and the taskbar is never enough to hold them all together, and they overflow to the next page, and then I keep missing incoming instant messages cause they pop up on the next page.

[davidspalding]

Locking the toolbar is an xp thing.

Actually, the ability to move the Taskbar *is* a feature. Combining it with the autohide and always-on-top options, you can put the Taskbar on the left or right, top and bottom, and size it to whatever you like without sliding desktop items halfway across the screen. A favorite of some programmers I know is to put it on the left, size it about 1/3 of the screen, auto-hide, so that instead of stubby little taskbar buttons, each one is long enough for one to really read what the button says.

You can do this with Quicklaunch bars, in both 2000 and xp, independently of the Taskbar. I have two of them on the right border of my work T41. The Quicklaunch bar has large icons, and another bar (for a folder of TP specific icons) shows small icons, so I get two rows/columns of them. Very handy. And it doesn't cramp the main Taskbar.

I suspect that when they thought of this, they were thinking of flexibility, not wives that accidentally move them.

All that said, if your Mrs. adamantly insists she hasn't been clicking-dragging the Taskbar, you might have a transient problem with Windows. Not unusual; for a week or two, my system has refused to return desktop icons to their correct places after logout and login. Thank the gods for the ATI Tray Tool which can memorize icon locations.

[MadMikeSS]

Thanks! Looks like I'm going to become quite familiar with all this, as she's already moved the taskbar again... this time, to the right side.

Time to teach her about what she is doing so that she can fix it herself.

[leoblob]

Time to teach her about what she is doing so that she can fix it herself.

... I assume you're not married... ??

[BruisedQuasar]

Ask a professional typist about MS Word's sudden shift to auto capitalizing the first letter of each sentence. That bug has been in every version of Word for seven years.

FWIW, there is an option to turn that off. I have Word 2000. Click on "tools", then "AutoCorrect...". You will then see a box that you can uncheck called "Capitalize first letter of sentences"

As far as I know you have always been able to turn the 'Caps each first letter' on and off. The problem is that Word turns it on and the typist must turn it off. Since this is an extremely rarely used function, many typists have no idea how to turn it off. I am asked to show many how to do this each year. It is not unusual for a typist to have to turn the function off several times in one day.

I prefer to talk the boss into letting me install free OpenOffice or much cheaper Word Perfect.

Apparantly, this bug does not happen to users who write only short documents. It nearly always occurs when multi-page documents are worked on. Businesses who pay hundreds of dollars a copy for MS Office often produce lengthy documents, especially law offices.