Active applications not in taskbar

[Stoney]

On my wife's laptop, the active applications no longer show up on the taskbar. If you start applications they don't show a button on the taskbar. If you minimize them, they simply dissappear. Pulling up the task manager (cntl-alt-del) shows that they are still active applications. The taskbar itself only shows one vertical divider on it.
I am thinking that she somehow closed the taskbar section that shows the active applications. I am hoping that it can be restored by simply right clicking on the toolbar and selecting New Toolbar and pointing it to the folder that holds the active applications. Only problem is...I don't know where to find that file/folder. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Arneson]

This addresses one aspect of your post.
Open the task manager and click on options at the top.
Make sure the Hide When Minimized is not checked.
Maybe that has some effect on the rest of taskbar.
If this happened all by itself, maybe you've been hyjacked.

[Kevin P]

Right-click on the taskbar, select Toolbars, and see what's selected. Try unselecting all of them. Also, make sure Lock the Taskbar is not selected, and then try dragging the vertical divider to see if the applications section isn't covered by something else.

If you could post a screenshot of your taskbar, that might help us figure it out.

[Stoney]

Thanks for the replies.
I tried posting a screen shot but didn't know how to make it small enough to pass the size restrictions. I did a <cntl/print screen> and pasted it to word then tried to upload the file but it was too big.
I will check the task manager options and also try unselecting all of the toolbars and see what happens.
The tool bar currently has one vertical divider on the left side between the start button and the icons in the quick launch toolbar. It appears as if the quick launch toolbar is the only one on the taskbar. Hovering over the divider pulls up the sizing arrows but it will not slide anywhere. If I add new toolbars they show up on the taskbar normally and can be resized by dragging the vertical divider associated with them.
On a normal taskbar, there is usually a vertical divider on the left of the quick launch bar and on the left of the "active applications" section. I did not see a selection in the toolbar menu that is for "Active Applications" but I figure if the task manager can show them that it should be possible to select "new toolbar" and point it to whatever file the task manager is looking at to display the active applications (if I only knew where it was).
My wife is Japanese and uses the Language Tool Bar. Last week she was relocating the Language tool bar from the desk top to the taskbar and noticed the current problem this week.
I am currently at work and won't be able to try any fixes for a few hours, but thank you for your replies and efforts.

[Kevin P]

Try turning off the Language toolbar temporarily and see if that solves the problem.

[Stoney]

I checked the Task manager options; hide when minimized is not checked.
I tried unselecting all the toolbars and turning off the language toolbar and the task bar went away. The start menu was also no longer available by mousing to the bottom edge (or any other edge) of the desktop. I had to hit the windows key to get the sart menu to appear.
How do I post a picture of the desktop and taskbar?

[dyazdani]

How do I post a picture of the desktop and taskbar?

You can use Control-PrintScreen and paste the resulting picture in a photo editor/paint/etc. You can resize it to get under the forum's size limit OR upload it to an image hosting site like ImageShack or PhotoBucket.

FWIW: I tried to reproduce your problem on my PC and could not do it. Have you tried to Google your issue? Usually works for me...

[Stoney]

Found this by doing a google search.
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm
Will probably try it and see what happens. Anybody see any dangers or hazards in using it?
I was going to run the one for "Minimized Applications Missing". Is there any way to open this file and see what it will do and do it myself?

[dyazdani]

I've read where other people have tried it with success.

I also found a possible fix, I suspect that your link is simply a VB script that performs a similar task.

• Launch Regedit
• Back up your Registry
• Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Explorer\ StuckRects and delete it.
• Reboot

[Stoney]

Danish;
Thanks for your help! I tried your Regedit fix above with no success but also no apparrent harm. I then ran the script from kellys-corner labled "Minimized Applications Missing" and it worked. Thank you for the Google search suggestion. My wife is happy again. When the wife is happy-we are all happy!

[dyazdani]

When the wife is happy-we are all happy!

We all understand that one! :lol:

[Vinny]

Danish;
When the wife is happy-we are all happy!

Whether she's happy or not may not link to our happiness directly
However, she would make us miserable if she's not happy ops: