I feel like a dope. (Stop agreeing.) I don't know what I did, but when I booted up this morning, none of the minimized programs I had running were in the Taskbar. You know what I mean -- Word, Eudora, Maxthon, and Windows Explorer -- were missing from the Taskbar.
I did the usual things, starting with right clicking on the Taskbar to see if anything was amiss. I couldn't find a thing, so I did what I'd advise a reader to do -- try a Google search. I found the Taskbar Repair Tool. I ran it and my Taskbar as good as new.
Back to the dopey part. I forgot that I wrote about the solution to this problem -- suggesting the same tool -- in my PC Annoyances book. First chance I get, though, I'm going to ask my doctor if I ought to up the meds.
The Missing Show Desktop Icon
While you're here, and while I was browsing through my book, I re-discovered another tip you might need one day. Losing the Show Desktop icon from the Quick Launch portion of your Taskbar. It' an easy fix: Retrieve it by turning to a great free utility written by Doug Knox, aptly named ?Restore Missing Show Desktop Icon to Quick Launch.? Grab the tool here and after you download, unzip, and install it, run the tool to recover your shortcut.
This is a great utility, but to remove the need for yet another program to download, here's a straight forward way to do it directly:
# Open your favourite text editor (such as Notepad)
[ Click Start -> Run -> type Notepad and enter]
# Copy the contents below to your Notepad excatly as shown and save as "Show Desktop.scf" (without the quotes)
--start copying below this line---
[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop
--stop copying above this line ---
# Once done, save the file, and drag the newly created file to your Quick Launch Toolbar ..
#The icon will become the Show Desktop shortcut.
# Process Complete
@nuttycat
Very nicely done. Thanks.
nuttycat: You're hired! Report to your new office (the corner suite) on Monday. --Steve
Thanks Guys... I've been looking for that icon for sometime now!