Taskbar is stuck at 2 lines high.

Question

I'm using XP home with service pack 2 on a Dimension 5150. A few hours ago I accidentally hit the right mouse key while I was moving the pointer onto the task bar. The taskbar doubled in height. The quickstar section is on the left end on the upper line and takes up about 1/3 of the screen. Programs that I start appear on the line below the task bar. The clock and tsr programs running appear in the separate area at the right end, but that too is two lines high. I can't reduce the height of the task bar to one line by left clicking on the top edge and dragging it. I can increase the height to two or more lines by dragging it upward, but I can't decrease it to one line. I can move the task bar to the other edges of the screen, but it is still two lines high or wide. Windows is weird. Naturally there is nothing that I can find in the Dell windows help about taskbar height. Paul

dbramlet · Answer

Great! Posted too late after you resolved it. Sorry!

plepkowski · Answer

It's solved!! The divider bar between the quickstart area and the running programs got moved when I clicked the mouse while it was moving. It was on the second line of the taskbar. I dragged it back to the upper line and the taskbar shrank. That divider line is gray on the gray background. If your eyes aren't real good you don't see it at all. Thanks.

dbramlet · Answer

I have also seen this happen and many times you can put you cursor at the top of the taskbar in a blank area and hold down the right mouse button and drag it lower. Had a guy the other day that did this and some of the taskbar was at the top of the display. He had to drag it half way down, release the right mouse button, let it refresh, and then drag it the rest of the way to the bottom. As suggested first right click on the taskbar in a blank space and uncheck lock the taskbar. You can also remove the check from quick launch for now. The try dragging it where you want it. Once you drag it to the bottom you may have to release the mouse button, let it refresh, then drag it more. You may also need to pull the taskbar line to the left if it is too far right. But, sometimes you can start the computer in the safe mode by tapping the F8 key when you boot the computer and until you get a boot option screen. Select safe mode without networking. Boot completely. Video will look strange. Then reboot the computer and many times the taskbar will be back to normal. One other option, select under tools system restore and restore the computer back to a date before you did this.

mombodog · Answer

Yay!, glad its solved.

mombodog · Answer

I have seen that behavior before, try locking then unlocking the taskbar, maybe several times, see if this helps.   If all else fails log off then back on again.

Windows General

Taskbar is stuck at 2 lines high.

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