Gee, couldn't you have made it any easier than that???? (Just kidding, of course!!) Thank you soooooo much. It's really bad when the task bar is on the left. LOL!

Put your cursor on an empty spot on the task bar, hold down the left mouse button and drag the bar into place. You may have to experiment a little with where you can click on it to drag it. After you get it in place right click on an empty spot and the task bar and select 'lock the task bar' and it should stay there.

Thanks, Bob. I do see dots - but not near the notification area. It's in the quick launch area and task bar (which shows I have firefox opened) - just to the right of the start menu. So thanks to you instructions, I was able to drag it all back to the bottom. Good to know that keep task bar on top means showing. Now I'm down to just one problem. the notification icons are displaying in three rows. These rows are taking up 2 regular sized bars. I can get the start, firefox open browser tab and quick launch icons on the top line - but I can't make the bottom line disappear because the notifcation icons are taking up 3 small rows. There are no dots there - and I can't find a way to collapse them into a single line. Also - interestingly, the whole reason i started this venture was to get the safely remove hardware icon back. Even though I went to properties - and selected customize, and always show safely remove hardware icon, the icon is still not showing. And the clock is now displaying on three lines as well. Thanks. Lynn.

Sapphires, If your taskbar is locked, what they call the "Sizing Handles" disappear. To make them reappear, move your cursor to the clock, right-click, and remove the check from "Lock the Taskbar." Once that is done, you should see the sizing handles. Move your cursor to the sizing handle you want to move and when your cursor changes into a double-headed arrow, hold down your left-mouse button and drag the sizing handle to where you want it. When finished moving them, go back to the clock, right-click and put a check back in "Lock the Taskbar." HTH Terry