A very peculiar problem

Me again.

I've been having a problem with some windows just disappearing from my desktop although they are sitting right there on the task bar. It's happened with Serpent Moon, it's happened most often with BigFish, but what really iced the cake was when my email program decided not to come back from its minimized state on the taskbar. I can click on the small icon and watch it fly off-screen to the right but I sure can't see it on the screen in front of me.

I found out what's going on when I took a screenshot of Serpent Moon and by gum, it was there all right but on another desktop to the right of the one I'm seeing.

Here's what I'm talking about. On the left, you see Windows Update. On the right, you see the extra desktop. Sometimes it will be complete with shortcut icons, sometimes not. Sometimes the shortcut icons will be reversed in position but not mirror images.

This is making me nuttier than I already am. If any of you real experts have the slightest idea what I can do to stop this, please let me know.

System Restore doesn't affect it, btw. Sometimes rebooting does...but not often enough.

Gil.

Did you try right clicking the taskbar and see if you got tile windows vertically checked off. Or horizontally, not sure if that is what does it. I tried messing with mine but nothing changed so I am probably not in the right area.

It looks like you're set up for using dual monitors or something.

I guess you need to check your Display Properties.
Here's a site about Display Properties and dual monitors.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/organization/twomonitors.aspx

hawkavonpuka, I tried it and I did see a momentary flash (Gameboomers was open) so maybe that is it, maybe selecting the stacked option will take care of it. So help me, I had never even noticed that 'show windows stacked/show windows side by side', I suppose because it meant nothing to me and I just assumed it meant multiple browser windows.

Jenny, I guess I am set up for dual monitors, though why I don't know. Is this a normal feature of Windows 7?

Well,anyway, if hawkavonpuka's solution is the right one, I'll be eternally grateful!

Thanks very much to you both! I hope I don't have to drag back here whimpering if the darned thing lets windows fly off again. <g>
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Well, one did fly off again but this time I went back to the taskbar and took another look. I clicked on Toolbars and saw there was a listing for Desktop so I clicked on that. What do you know, my browser came right back from next door.

hawk, you're a genius. <g>

However, I'm hoping that Jenny's solution is going to stop this from ever happening again. I found the setting on my screen resolution page that restricts the desktop to showing only on "1". Then I took the Desktop icon off the toolbar and so far everything's behaving.

So huge thanks to you both again!

Gil.

Is your taskbar locked? It was just a guess, but I have found many things rearranged on my computer after my granddaughter uses it. There is probably a "real" reason and a "real" fix, but if taskbar is locked it shouldn't come undone by itself. I have no clue on Windows 7 either, but someone else will come along and clue both of us in.

Well, it's locked now! <G>

Gil.