Windows taskbar, an extra toolbar?Follow

The other day I turned on my computer, and my taskbar was all screwed up. I cleaned it up a bit, but now I have an extra tool bar.

I can't seem to get rid of it, It's not any of the default bars, I can resize it and move it around, but I can't get rid of it. It's quite annoying.

Here's a screenshot, I resized my taskbar so it would be easier to see:

http://img151.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=12036_Weird_Start_Bar_Issue_122_146lo.JPG

Any ideas?

Edited, Mar 14th 2007 7:13pm by TirithRR

I can move it around on the taskbar, I can resize it, but I can't remove it from the task bar. I've tried moving it off of the taskbar with no luck.

A weird thing I noticed.

If I grab a file and bring it over the normal taskbar, and over a window button, that window will maximize, allowing me to drop the file inside the window. (This is normal for windows, I know).

But, if I grab the same file, and drag it over this mystery toolbar, it maximizes the first window button in my normal taskbar. It's almost as if this weird toolbar is acting like a window button on the taskbar.


Edit: I tested a little bit more with dragging files over it, and it appears to be a duplicate taskbar, that just doesn't show the buttons. If I drag files overtop where the minimized window buttons should be, it maximizes the respective window.

Weird... Two taskbars, side by side, and the clone doesn't show the buttons.

Edited, Mar 15th 2007 5:27pm by TirithRR

First thing I would suggest would be to run a spyware/AV scan. While I haven't seen this kind of thing exactly like yours myself, it does sound an awful lot like internet casino toolbars, "spyware removal" toolbars and the like.

Do you get any pop ups, odd behavior or things like that on the machine?

Prior to the power outage, when was the last time you rebooted? Sometimes windows does have issues with active desktop, desktop refreshing and updating windows explorer windows. There are lots of reports of memory leak issues, .dlls not releasing when the system is done with them and the pre-cache not being dumped as it's supposed to be.

In fact, I get weird stuff on mine at times. For example, if I swap CD's, every so often it still "sees" the old CD in the drive even after refreshing and closing/opening the individual folder tree. Or it will show me two "F" drives along with my "G" drive (both my CD drives). I have to completely close out the explorer window and reopen it in order to see the new CD in the drive. Yet the CD works fine. Just a weird little thing I've seen in almost every incarnation of Windows since at least 95.

Alternatively, it's possible that someone used your machine, something happened and they "forgot" to tell you. Such as customizing the desktop and locking the taskbar after creating additional items or making a mistake when creating them. Do you have multiple logins on the machine or other people who might use it?