Task Bar on tiny laptop - various issues 1

[OsakaWebbie]

I bought an Eee PC (very handy little thing) which here in Japan comes with Windows XP Home (rather than Linux, which is standard Eee PC fare in other countries). The screen is 7 inches, 480x800 pixels, so I'm trying to economize my real estate. On all my computers I "hide" the task bar, so that is normal for me, but the one new thing I did is put the bar on the left side instead of the bottom. In this configuration it needs to be fairly wide, because the open programs are still written horizontally, but since it's set to be hidden when not in use, that's fine. But then, as I started using the computer, I began to notice crazy things with the task bar:

1) The quick-start icons are huge - they are the full-size kind that usually just appear on the desktop (32x32, I think?) rather than the little ones (16x16?) that usually are used for the quick-start menu, status tray, and other places like that. I have never seen that before, and cannot find a setting for quick-start icon size. Naturally, on this computer more than any other, I need them to be small.

2) The width of the start bar won't stay as big as I set it. Even if the bar is set to "locked" (sorry, I don't know if that's the English term, but hopefully you know what I mean), every time the computer is rebooted or some change happens to the contents of the bar, the width shrinks a little bit - eventually it becomes just barely wide enough for one quick-start icon, which is a useless width for the vertical layout. On my other computers I have often set horizontal start bars to be taller than the default, and they always stay that tall. And even on this PC, if set horizontally and big it stays big, but in vertical mode it shrinks.

3) Sometimes it doesn't show all of the status tray icons that should be there. Yes, I have it set to show me all of them all the time - there is no little arrow icon hiding the less-used ones. But some icons simply don't appear sometimes - some more important ones are my battery icon (which hovering would show my my remaining battery life) and the "safely remove a removable device" one, which is sometimes not there even if a removable device is indeed connected. Others come and go also (the full set numbers about ten, as the PC came with various little memory-resident utilities - I may get rid of some of them, but first I want my PC to be stable in its display of information). I haven't thoroughly investigated this one yet - it may be that for each icon whose absence I notice, there is a logical explanation, but if you know of some general principles about the status tray in this regard, I'm all ears.

Any thoughts on any of these? Even if you only have an idea about one of them, I look forward to your input. Thanks!

 

[linney]

Unlock the Taskbar and then follow this....

"If the Quicklaunch icons are large. Assuming they are, you have the "view" option in Quicklaunch set for "Large Icons" and you want to set it to "Small Icons." Place your cursor at either end of the Quicklaunch bar--just outside of the icon buttons--and right-click. The top menu item should be View, with options as above".

XP Desktop Taskbar doubles in size when Quicklaunch added
thread779-1230176

How to customize the quick launch bar?
thread779-1272640

Systray Icons Missing

http://winhlp.com/node/16

 

[OsakaWebbie]

Wow, Linney, that was fast and effective!

Regarding #1: I looked all over the place for an icon size setting, and a couple friends who know more Windows than me (and even hang out an informal shingle as Windows consultants) looked also, but we all came up dry. I didn't try clicking in that little sweet spot!

Regarding #3: That last link was great - it exactly describes my symptoms, as well as general setup that is suseptible to the problem:
* Auto-login during bootup, which I don't want to sacrifice
* uPnP, the first computer I've owned that has it

I was unfamiliar with uPnP, so I'm assuming that I don't use it. So I charged forward with the Ostuni Workaround, even though my PC warned me that new devices would no longer be detected by the uPnP software if I hid the devices (I don't know if I care or not). I then moved the task bar back where I want it (left side and fat) and rebooted. I didn't notice any more icons than I had just prior, but all the ones I care about happened to have been there today anyway, so we'll see over time. This is an intermittent problem, so it must be time tested - I'll go back to that page if I have more troubles.

Regarding #2: Amazingly, although the two changes I made were for problems 1 and 3, at least this time a reboot did not shrink my task bar, either! And that problem was pretty consistent if I started out wide enough to show the whole Start button and then rebooted, so this is a good sign. I don't know which of the two things I changed would affect this, but I don't care, as long as it continues to behave.

Thanks a bunch!

 

[linney]

Your not the first member to ask about icon size and the Quick Launch, it was just something I noted from previous inquiries. I hope it stays good for you.

Personally the Quick Launch Toolbar is something I always disable and never use.

 

[OsakaWebbie]

I often have many windows open, so getting to my desktop icons requires minimizing everything (yes, I know I can do it in one step with Windows-M, but it still disrupts what I'm working on), so I find the Quick Launch to be handy as a location of shortcuts that can always be accessed. I use it far more often than either the desktop or the start menu.