Answered: XP task bar stuck in the wrong place. Help?

*** answer found ****

It starts like this:
6-year-old daughter is playing at Dad's computer while Dad is asleep. Dad wakes up to find the task bar up there on the left side of the screen, vertical. Hey, no problem. This has happened before. You just put the cursor in a blank spot, and drag that baby right back down to the bottom where it belongs. No, really. That's what ALL the online help places tell you. And if you want you can play "snap the task bar" and toss it up, down, left right. Knock yourself out. It's fun!

But wait! What if that doesn't work? What then? Well, you unlock it first of course. Duh. Yeah... well, if it were locked in the first place, it wouldn't be sitting up there on the left side mocking me right now. No, it isn't locked. I've tried locking it, unlocking it... with a drag attempt each time. Nothing doing.

I can stretch the thing half way across the page. I can compress it so it is no longer visible. Hey, if that were entertaining enough, I'd be all set and wouldn't have a complaint. But it isn't, and I'm not.

Well, how about a reboot. That should sort everything out. Sure! But no. I've had the thing stuck over there for two days now, and the machine has been rebooted about six times since then.

Does anybody have a clue as to how to get this dang task bar back down on the bottom where the Windows Gods intended? Or am I going to have to kill somebody?

Thanks... bonus points for anybody who can solve the problem while also making me look like an idiot.

Re: XP task bar stuck in the wrong place. Help?

right click on task bar, there is an entry called as "Lock the Task Bar" if that is checked, uncheck it by clicking on that menu item. you will again be able to freely move that task bar. (Click it even if it is unlocked, at times the checkbox may not appear)

to prevent such a occurence again, you can lock the taskbar again

hope this helps

Re: XP task bar stuck in the wrong place. Help?

ViReN said:

right click on task bar, there is an entry called as "Lock the Task Bar" if that is checked, uncheck it by clicking on that menu item. you will again be able to freely move that task bar.

to prevent such a occurence again, you can lock the taskbar again

hope this helps

Click to expand...

Thanks for playing, ViReN... but you must have glossed over this part from the post above:

But wait! What if that doesn't work? What then? Well, you unlock it first of course. Duh. Yeah... well, if it were locked in the first place, it wouldn't be sitting up there on the left side mocking me right now. No, it isn't locked. I've tried locking it, unlocking it... with a drag attempt each time. Nothing doing.

Click to expand...

The big question is... what to do if the bar is NOT locked and still won't move? When I lock it, I can see the difference, and the thing can no longer be stretched or compressed. When I unlock it, I can stretch the borders again... but still can't move the dang thing!

Re: XP task bar stuck in the wrong place. Help?

Click it even it shows unlocked

Re: XP task bar stuck in the wrong place. Help?

ViReN said:

Click it even it shows unlocked

Click to expand...

Yup. From above:

I've tried locking it, unlocking it... with a drag attempt each time. Nothing doing.

Click to expand...

Re: XP task bar stuck in the wrong place. Help?

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=11854 try this and
http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/917/

be careful while playing with system registry

Re: XP task bar stuck in the wrong place. Help?

Leave it to the young'uns to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the impossible can be done, the unbreakable can broken, the toughest tools can be ruined, the fanciest of daddy's toys can be trashed (probably tossed into the tub)... really, there is nothing they can't do.

Sorry, D- sounds like you tried everything I had in my list.

Re: XP task bar stuck in the wrong place. Help?

Tried left click on empty place of tool bar and move to the side of screen where you want it?

On my machine, the task bar does not really "float" (was that windows 95/98?)... It appears that nothing is happening until you get near the edge of the screen where you want to dock it????

On my PC, I was trying to move it a few inches and nothing seemed to be happening--I was 1/2 convinced that mine was locked to the bottom of the screen (plus I was using right mouse most of the time--not right).

My other suggest is make sure that the mouse has not been set to left handed...

-Bill

PS: Left clicking over the clock and dragging also works...

Re: XP task bar stuck in the wrong place. Help?

BB said:

PS: Left clicking over the clock and dragging also works...

Click to expand...

Well, son of a gun. I just sat there and nodded at your entire message. I've tried it all, and know about the snapping and which button to use to drag. Then I read this, and since I never tried using the clock, I figure I had nothing to lose. SNAP. done.

So I have NO idea what is meant by "clicking in a blank spot." That didn't work in any of the 1,254 times I tried it. But the clock? Instantly.

You rock, Bill!

Thanks others for keeping my spirits up.

Re: XP task bar stuck in the wrong place. Help?

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/WinXP/Q_20867376.html one more reference, may be some answers are hidden here...

Re: XP task bar stuck in the wrong place. Help?

Thanks Viren, I got it!

Interestingly enough, now that I have have it moved by the official "Bill-Clock" method. I can grab it anywhere in the blank part and move it again. Easy as that. Don't know what the big hangup was, but now it works exactly as it did before -and as all the online places tell you it should. The clock saves the day (glad I keep the clock on!).

And now I have it back where it belongs and LOCKED in place (not like the lock really works on the IE task bars, but hey - might as well give it a shot).

Re: XP task bar stuck in the wrong place. Help?

Darell,

I know what you mean... I tried moving my task bar to the left just so that I could see if there was any other methods to try--and low and behold--it took me 10 minutes (on and off) of trying to move the darn thing (nothing happening)...

For me, I was trying the to move in the middle of the task bar and nothing would happen at all until I moved the mouse close to the other edges--very much gave the impression that nothing was working. Lead me to trying 3/4 of the time trying to move with the right mouse key--and again nothing happening.

Kind of a weird user interface without much user feedback.

-Bill

Re: XP task bar stuck in the wrong place. Help?

You have to feed the brownies and cross your toes withthis one, especially when someone calls because it disappeared.
I guess the task bar is teh most human part of teh screen as you have to be *very* careful where you grab it and even then, it does not always seem to want to move.