Right click on the toolbar, uncheck "lock the taskbar".  if it is unchecked already, simply drag the taskbar back to the bottom, lock it back.

Thanks,  Mombodog.  That worked.  However, I now have a double-high taskbar with duplicate icons of what I have on my desktop, where I didn't have them there before, and tasks I'm running can only be seen by clicking on a rectangular box just to the right of the "start" button.  How do I return this to what I had before, with no duplicate icons and on a single-high taskbar?

unlock the task bar and hover the mouse cursor over the top edge of the taskbar until you have the double arrow (up/down), drag it down to 1 row, lock it back.

 

You can delete any icons you don't want by right clicking them, select delete, or highlight them and hit the delete button. You might want to do this before you shrink it to one row. 

Strange behavior, I would go here http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board?board.id=si_hijack and read the RED link at the top, then post your log on that forum for more expert help.

 

You may have malware or worse on that PC.

Well, I got the taskbar back to the bottom, but haven't been able to use your suggestion to shrink the bar to one-line size.  Will just not do it.  I thought the icons may be the culprit, so I used your suggestion to delete them one by one.  Well, the icon gets deleted, but another one appears in its place.   If I do this many times, the items I've deleted before pop up for another round.

 

Jackster

Thanks, Mombodog.   I'll try that next.

 

I like your animation with the tiger.

 

 

Jackster