for the several days now my IE7 lower toolbar did not display new windows being opened, so yestarday, while trying to fix the problem, I did hide the lower toolbar by deactivating it. Now I don't know how to reinstate it - I can't see this option in my 'tools' -> 'toolbars'.

anybody any ideas?

Check in top menu - View/Status Bar

I do have status bar displayed - yestarday I have disactivated the toolbar at the bottom (the one below the status bar) and now don't know how to get it back

If I understand what you are asking

Try Start > Control Panel > Appearance and Themes > Task Bar and Start menu.

Then tick Lock the Task bar and Keep the Task Bar on top of other windows.

Right click somewhere in a existing IE Toolbar and a Menu will popup where you can check or uncheck existing Toolbars!

worked, thanx.

still there are no any windows shown in the task bar being opened - the original problem.

For clarification: The OP is not, as he has stated, looking for an IE toolbar. Rather he's looking for the Windows Task Bar.

OP: The Windows Task Bar is the thing on the bottom of the screen that shows all open windows. It's not part of IE, rather it's part of Windows.

I fixed this for a friend once but don't remember what I did to get there - it was weird, the toolbar would not show any applications.