The Internet Explorer icons are only 1/2 inch long

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These icons are in the Quick Launch section, and SFAIK (so far as I
know) this is the size they always will be.

Others may know more than I
Click to expand...

right click the taskbar and hit properties

in there you can set the icons to be large, rather than small, or vice
versa.

smowk
 
michael2244 said:
This speaks for the size, not the breadth. I still have the problem!
Click to expand...

Are you referring to the non-graphical icons which are placed on the TaskBar
when you open an instance of a program which contain the title of the
program? or the graphical icons which are in the QuickLaunch area of the
TaskBar? or the graphical icons which are placed in the Notification Area
("System Tray" in older versions of Windows). Or the graphical icons which
are on the Desktop? Which ones?

Do you mean that these icons are only half-an inch wide? and taller?
Graphical Icons on the Desktop(and everywhere else, for that matter) are
always square, not rectangular. The default size for icons is 32 pixels
square.

Half-inch wide icons are VERY LARGE. To make them smaller, just increase
the resolution of your Desktop. IN other words, change your Desktop
resolution from 800x600 to 1024x768, or 1152x864
 
I'm lost. To the right of Start, you have 4 or so icons that are 1/4 high,
and can be expanded horizontally. To the right of these, I have the same
size icons, only 1/2 inch WIDE on the Open Bar, and they CAN"T expand. They
used to, but no more. They also have stacked up vertically, #1 to whatever,
instead of horizontally laying them out.
 
I'm lost. To the right of Start, you have 4 or so icons that are 1/4
high, and can be expanded horizontally. To the right of these, I
have the same size icons, only 1/2 inch WIDE on the Open Bar, and
they CAN"T expand. They used to, but no more. They also have
stacked up vertically, #1 to whatever, instead of horizontally laying
them out.
Click to expand...

What in God's Name is "the open bar"? Are you referring to the XP TaskBar?
1) The Start button is to the extreme left of the TaskBar
2) The "Quicklaunch" area is just to the right of the Start button
3) The next part of the Taskbar contains the buttons of the various programs
with open windows which are running. These are referred to as "buttons",
not "icons"
4) The "Notification area" (or System Tray, as it was called in previous
versions of Windows) is to the extreme right-hand side of the TaskBar, and
contains the icons of SOME programs which are currently running. This
"Notification Area" also contains the Clock.
4) The icons contained in the Quicklaunch area are more properly defined as
"square", not "wide" or "narrow". To make them larger or smaller,
1) Unlock the taskbar:
a) Right-click on a clear area of the Taskbar
b) Uncheck "Lock the Taskbar"
2) Place the mouse pointer squarely on the first grabber (vertical line)
just to the left of the left-most icon in the Quicklaunch area, until the
mouse pointer becomes a double-headed arrow
3) Immediately right-click.
4) A popup menu will appear.
5) Click on "View" (at the very top of the popup menu)
6) Place a checkmark beside "Large icons" (if you want larger icons) or
"Small icons" (if you want small icons.

The size of the icons in the Notification area cannot be changed.

What I think you are referring to which are "1/2 inch wide" are the buttons
for the running programs which disappear when their windows are all closed.
These can be defined as "wide", since they grow in size or shrink depending
on the number of programs open on your desktop. To "unstack" them,
1) Rightclick on the Start Button.
2) Choose "Properties"
3) Click on the "Taskbar" tab
4)Uncheck "Group similar taskbar buttons"

There is no way to change the size of the buttons for open programs and
windows on the Taskbar. The width of these are hardwired by the OS as each
program is placed on the Desktop, and change in width depending on the
number of open programs.
 
I'm lost. To the right of Start, you have 4 or so icons that are 1/4 high,
and can be expanded horizontally. To the right of these, I have the same
size icons, only 1/2 inch WIDE on the Open Bar, and they CAN"T expand. They
used to, but no more. They also have stacked up vertically, #1 to whatever,
instead of horizontally laying them out.
Click to expand...

It sounds like the area of the taskbar where buttons for open programs are
placed has become very small. Try this:

Right click your taskbar and select Toolbars. Remove the checks next to all
of the active toolbars. Now take a look at the taskbar. Are the program
buttons more to your liking?

If yes, add your toolbars back. Unlock the taskbar (right click, click on
Lock Taskbar if it is checked). You'll now be able to see boundary lines
for each toolbar. You can grab these lines with your mouse and slide them
to readjust the size of the toolbars.

Keep the toolbars sized in a way that allows more than 1/2 inch of space on
the rest of the taskbar - space that will be used for the program buttons.

Another thing you could try if you have a larger monitor: increase the
taskbar to two rows. Put your toolbars on one row, leaving an entire second
row for program buttons.

OR move the toolbars off of the taskbar and drop them at any empty edge of
the desktop. This action will cause the toolbar to take a taskbar like
form.

You may need to play around with your toolbars and taskbar to get
everything going just the way you want but after spending a little bit of
time at it, should come up with something that is workable for you.
 
I think I got it. Thank you for your patience. I don't get "View" at the
place you told me. My son played around with MY machine, so I think I'll
have to reformat it.
 
Thanks. Nothing works! My son worked on MY machine and did something. I'll
have to reformat it, I think!
 
Crap. We can set the taskbar to system default. As I still have no idea on what you are describing....

Type regedit in Start Run and delete all these keys. Then read the last section carefully (Apply to All).

Delete these keys or values from the registry. This will reset many things like saved folder settings.
Type Regedit in Start - Run
Click Start - Turn Off Computer (or maybe Shutdown) - Ctrl + Alt + Shift + click Cancel (or Close) (your Desktop and Start Menu now disappear). This is a clean shutdown unlike using Task Manager.


In Regedit navigate to each of these keys and delete them
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer and delete the value
Shellstate

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CabinetState and delete the value
Settings

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StreamsMRU (may not exist)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\BagMRU
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\Bags
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StuckRects2

This sets most of the shell to factory settings.

Now press Ctrl + Alt + Delete and choose File - New Task (Run) ..., and type explorer. Set your settings to how you want.
 
Unless it an appearance issue (maybe you should have got your son to post here), Right click desktop, Properties, and choose the standard theme on the Theme tab.
 
Thanks. Nothing works! My son worked on MY machine and did something. I'll
have to reformat it, I think!
Click to expand...

It's hard to picture what you're describing in your original post. Is the
taskbar still located along the bottom of the desktop (horizontal position)
or did it move into a vertical position? If it is vertical, make sure it is
unlocked (right click on it to see if it is locked or not). Then click in a
blank spot on the taskbar. Hold the mouse key to drag taskbar to the
desired edge of the screen. Drop it into place.
 
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