taskbar - too many sections

[John Smith]

A taskbar typically has four sections:

start | quick launch | currently open | system tray

Sometimes, mine has more than one "currently open" sections. I can
close all of them but two, essentially having an extra "currently
open" section occupying the precious real estate.

Why does this happen and how to cure the problem? Thanks.

This is on an IBM Thinkpad.

 

[FrankV]

RightClick on the toolbar and then click on "toolbars" to see what you are
using. You may have more than one clicked here.

Frank

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

A taskbar typically has four sections:

start | quick launch | currently open | system tray

It's perhaps a minor bit of trivia, but no, it only has three sections. The
Quick Launch Bar is not actually part of the Task Bar. It's a separate
toolbar, and like other optional tool bars, although it appears *on* the
Task Bar by default, it can be dragged off it and moved elsewhere on the
screen.

Sometimes, mine has more than one "currently open" sections. I can
close all of them but two, essentially having an extra "currently
open" section occupying the precious real estate.

If I'm understanding you correctly, I've never seen this. How can you tell
there are two? How are they separated? What differentiates them? Are they
duplicates of each other or are there different icons on each? If different,
which are on each?

What do you mean by "sometimes"? Is there any discernable pattern to when
this occurs? Immediately on booting? After you've started a particular
program?

 

[John Smith]

If I'm understanding you correctly, I've never seen this. How can you tell
there are two? How are they separated? What differentiates them? Are they
duplicates of each other or are there different icons on each? If different,
which are on each?

There are dividers, columns of vertical dots, between start and
quick launch, quick launch and currently open, currently open and
system tray. So, between quick launch and system tray, there are
two dividers. You can drag and move them horizontally to expand or
reduce the size of each section, to some extent.

Sometimes, I see more than two dividers, could be four or maybe
five dividers between quick lauch and system tray.

I can right click and select "close toolbar" from the menu to get
rid of most of the sections but not the last two. The last two
currently open sections do not have the "close toolbar" option in
the menu.

Sometimes, they are duplicates. Other times, one is empty.

What do you mean by "sometimes"? Is there any discernable pattern to when
this occurs? Immediately on booting? After you've started a particular
program?

There might be a pattern. I am not sure. It happens the most often
when I first put the laptop on the dock station and turn it on.
The probelm seems to go away by itself after the laptop has docked
(or undocked) for a couple of days.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

There are dividers, columns of vertical dots, between start and
quick launch, quick launch and currently open, currently open and
system tray. So, between quick launch and system tray, there are
two dividers. You can drag and move them horizontally to expand or
reduce the size of each section, to some extent.

Thanks for the clarification. I've never seen this before and have no
answers for you. Perhaps someone else has, and I'll be watching this thread
to see if anyone knows more about it than I.

 

[Alec S.]

A taskbar typically has four sections:

start | quick launch | currently open | system tray

Actually, the QuickLaunch section is a toolbar, and you can create your own by dragging folders onto the taskbar.

Sometimes, mine has more than one "currently open" sections. I can
close all of them but two, essentially having an extra "currently
open" section occupying the precious real estate.

Why does this happen and how to cure the problem? Thanks.

Try this: making sure that "Lock the Taskbar" is off, drag the handle of each of those problem toolbars off of the taskbar and into
the desktop. It should create a little window (toolbar)¡Xempty by what you say. Right-click on it and select "Show Text"; does
that show any new info? Do the same and select "Show Title"; what is the title of the problem toolbar(s)? Click the close button
(little x), then reboot; do they come back? If so, where, the same place or back on the taskbar?

If they come back, copy the following into a text file, save it on the desktop as "ClearToolbars.reg" (make sure it's .reg, not
..reg.txt¡Xthe file should have a green icon), double-click it, say Yes to merge it, then reboot:

REGEDIT4
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams\Desktop]


HTH