Where Are Those Icons?

If you are running Windows XP, you will always see the various icons over in the lower right (unless you moved your taskbar) portion of your screen. The time will be there as well as other icons depending on the applets you have running. But do you also see some icons on the left side of the task bar next to the Start button? If you don't, you don't have the Quick Launch bar on. You may be interested in having it on.

To turn the Quick Launch bar on (or off), right click on the Taskbar and click Properties. You will see a Show Quick Launch item under the Taskbar appearance section. Click it on to display the Quick Launch bar and unclick it to turn it off.

Several items will appear. One of my favorites is the Show Desktop button. You can click this and no matter what applications are running on your screen, you can get back to your Desktop. Buttons for your most used applications can also be created simply by dragging and dropping a shortcut to the application onto the Quick Launch bar.

Of course if you are going to use the Quick Launch bar you should probably remove any duplicate shortcuts from your desktop. Remember, a clean desktop is a good desktop!