strange behavior: windows cover the taskbar, and initial size is not full screen

[urlwolf]

I'm going nuts trying to debug this problem.
I don't think its related to any software I installed (using My uninstall, nothing was installed new before this problem but roboform, and it is safe to assume RF is not the culprit).

The strange behavior I find is that any new window will cover the taskbar, and initial size is not full screen(but a strange long rectangle).

I have my screen not in landscape mode, but vertically. The drivers for ATI radeon 9000-laptop take care of this. It worked fine until now. The windows taskbar is on top. Moving it to any other position didn't fix it.

Rebooting doesn't solve it .
Changing the properties of the taskbar (make it on top of windows) doesn't help, because it covers the top part of any window that is maximized, losing info.

The problem is that the taskbar window does not block others to cover it. It works as if the taskbar coordinates are ignored by the system.

I have searched annoyances.org, but couldn't find any related solution.

Any ideas about what to try?

Thanks

[nudone]

this probably won't help but i assume you've played around with changing the settings for what the taskbar does, i.e. 'auto-hide' and 'keep the taskbar on top of other windows'.

if not, then it might be worth going through a cycle of turning the options on and off. unlikely to fix the problem but you never know.

[urlwolf]

Thanks Nudone, I tried that.

*FIXED*
I simply dl and used this program:
http://www.g4tv.com/...tectflash=false&
The frist option in the dropdown menu solved it.

Weird.

[nudone]

great.

i think i'll download that little util also, might come in handy one day.

[nite_monkey]

sounds cool, ill dl it when I get home, maybe it will help me in some way or another with somthing that I may not evan know I could do.