OUCH!
Either
A. You didn't explain the problem properly [I don't think this is the case] or
B. There is a failure to communicate here.
Either way, you may have gotten some questionable advice in that last post. Anytime you start messing with the services [or the registry for that matter] you can do some serious damage and render your machine inoperable if you don't know what you are doing. There are services that are essential to the proper operation of your system and dependencies between services. Before making any changes, you should consult a site like
or MS Support for more information on them. FYI, you can also get at the services by clicking on the "Services" tab in MSCONFIG.
The problem you stated is that you can not get
- "things" to stay in the task bar
- how do you delete "things" in the startup.
I think there is a misunderstanding of that lower part of the screen and what it's actual functions are. It is broken into two, three or more areas depending on your configuration.
[ul][li]Quick Launch Area - A customizable toolbar that lets you display the Windows desktop or start a program (for example, Internet Explorer) with a single click. You can add buttons to start your favorite programs from the Quick Launch location on the taskbar.
This is generally located to the right of the Start button and is optional and can be turned off.[/li]
[li]Task Area - The area that contains buttons for each of the active (open) applications/windows.
This area is generally to the right of the Start button and QuickLaunch area. XP now has options to customize how these buttons are grouped and appear.[/li]
[li]Notification Area - The area on the taskbar to the right of the taskbar buttons. The notification area displays the time and can also contain shortcuts that provide quick access to programs, such as Volume Control and Power Options. Other shortcuts can appear temporarily, providing information about the status of activities. For example, the printer shortcut icon appears after a document has been sent to the printer and disappears when printing is complete.
This area is generally to the far left on the task bar. In XP, there are options to hide elements in the Notification Area if they have not been used recently as wolluf pointed out. This may be the symptom that they have "disappeared".[/li][/ul]
Note that the Notification Area DOES NOT represent all the running processes. Certain processes can be configured to show in the Notification Area but many of the applications and services do not show in this area. Services generally do not show in the Task Area either. If you want to see all the running processes, open the Task Manager and click on the Processes tab.
With XP, you can have multiple users "logged in" and running different applications. If you switch users, you may see different applications in the Task Area and Notification Area. THIS IS NORMAL as pmidwest pointed out. To ensure that the Notifications always appear, follow the advice Basnbuck provided.
As far as deleting things in the startup, all you need to do is use MSCONFIG. First, uncheck the items you do not want to start and restart the machine. If all works OK then you can remove them. I would not recommend actually deleting applications until you are sure you will not ever need them. There are some that can/should NOT be deleted but can be inactivated. Why not list the ones in questions and we can provide assistance with them.
Rather lengthy but I hope it helps.
The Old Man
