RIGHT click a blank area in the lower right taskbar, choose "Properties". When that loads, in the "Taskbar" tab, in the "Taskbar"buttons section, use the drop down menu to select "Always combine, hide labels", then select "Apply". Next, in the same Properties window, select the "Customize" button in the Notification Area. When that opens, select the blue "Turn system icons on or off", and at the next page select "Restore default icon behaviors." Once that's done, select the blue "Customize notification icons". Once there, you can do one of two things.. UNCHECK the box that says: "Always show all icons and notifications in the taskbar" or leave it CHECKED and then go through each of the separate icon types and choose "Only show notifications". Save any changes.
Hope this helps.
Grif
A few months back, my taskbar (Win 7 Pro x64) suddenly started showing not only the small icons that should be there but big, labeled icons duplicating those on my desktop. I cannot drag the taskbar toward the edge of the screen to minimize it, but I can draw it out larger, which brings up more of the desktop icons.
I am not sure what software in my system caused this. Any idea how I can fix it?
If someone will tell me how to post a screenshot here, I will.

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