Taskbar help with hiding inactive icons

[Pete Rodrick]

As we all know one can hide inactive icons on the right
side of the taskbar by clicking that little arrow
button. My problem is that that arrow has disappeared
all together. (It looks like a Windows 98 taskbar but
even without little icons showing the running processes)
And when i right-click the taskbar, and click properties,
the option to "Hide Inactive Icons" and its description
are grayed out so i cant edit them. I'm wondering if i
ended some process that this taskbar hide inactive icons
needs to run off of, but im not sure. Any help is much
appreciated. (EX: When i close my buddy list in AOL
Instant Messenger, normally it would remain in my taskbar
near the clock so i could right click and open up my
buddy list again, but this and all the other icons have
disappeared along with the arrow to collapse or expand
the inactive icons)

 

[Delwin Lee [MSFT]]

It looks like you have the "don't show notification area" policy enabled.

If you're on XP Pro:
- go to Start\Run and enter "gpedit.msc"
- expand User Configuration \ Administrative Templates and select "Start
Menu and Taskbar"
- for the "Hide the notification area" policy, set it to disabled
- Log off and log back on.