in the past couple of days my taskbar disappears so i can't see my open windows (xp pro) and end up getting lost. if i reboot it comes back. i have run anti-spyware and anti-virus programs to no avail. any idea what might cause this? i read online about a trojan that does this, but i don't seem to have it on my system and when i follow the instructions to remove it it does nothing. is this just another very weird thing that happens to only me?

Not sure of the reason but you might try right click on it and check "lock the taskbar". I have had problems in the past but don't seem to have them now that it is locked (but that may be pure luck).

Lock the task bar prevents you from moving it around.

If you right click on the task bar and choose properties you should see an option "Auto-hide the taskbar". If it is checked the taskbar will hide and reappaer when you move the mouse to the bottom edge of the screen (If your taskbar is normally there of course, Mine is on top of the screen)

hi'

may be some system files corrupted ...

in command line type: "sfc /scannow" (inserting your win xp cd before, and without the quote), this will check the integrity of all protected files of windows

after finish, reboot and from command line too, type :"sfc /purgecache"

hope it helps a bit

francois

nah it's not the hide/lock the taskbar thing, that would be very obvious wouldn't it...

thanks francois, i will try that!