[onionblaster]

Hey all. I'm running windows XP on the laptop (downstairs, not my main computer) and I'm having trouble with the taskbar. Open windows don't show up on it and neither do minimized windows. To open a minimized window I have to ALT-TAB until I find it and then open it up. The "quick launch" toolbar is on there now, and it usually isn't. But here's the weird thing. When I change the taskbar properties (take away the quick launch, lock or unlock, turn on or off auto-hide or "always on top") the whole taskbar disappears and won't come back unless I end the explorer.exe process and then run it again. When I do run it again, the same things are wrong with it. I've run ad-aware and all that and haven't found any viruses, but I'll keep looking. If anyone can give me some advice it'd be great, thanks.

 

[Davesrose]

It sounds like something or other corrupted Windows. I'd run a disk scanner to make sure you don't have any bad sectors on your HD. The only thing I can see is that you might be forced to re-install Windows.

 

[socrates63]

Before going the Windows reinstall route, have you tried System Restore?

 

[Evil^Mango]

Some of you system files maybe corrupted, you can use "sfc /scannow" in the command line to check the integrity of your system files. Windows will scan and replace any corrupted system files. Hope this helps.