Date: 04/22/06 (Computer Geeks)    Keywords: google

A few months ago, my dad installed a screensaver onto his user space on our family computer, and while it's not affecting anyone else's desktop, he's had constant problems with his own ever since.

The common tasks pane that's usually there on the left hand side when you open up folders has attached itself onto his desktop, and try as I may, I've found absolutely no way of removing it. I've searched Google and various other search engines, and only been able to find how to remove/add the common tasks pane in actual folder windows - I can't find anywhere that addresses the concept of having it on your desktop. Even trying to remove the common tasks pane from the folder windows like My Documents and then setting it as a default hasn't budged it - the pane is removed in all the folders, but remains on the desktop.

Screenshot of the desktop and common tasks pane.

In trying to remove it, I've tried to access both 'Folder Options' and 'Taskbar and Start Menu' from the Control Panel, but for some reason, both of them refuse to open. There is no error message displayed, but absolutely no reaction to speak of from the pc at all, aside from a display of the 'busy' cursor for a second or two, before reverting back to normal, with no outcome. I've discovered that I can still open 'Folder Options' in other round-about ways, by going into Tools/Folder Options in My Documents, but the fact that I can't open it from Control Panel seems to suggest there is a problem.

In addition, the desktop appears to be in what I can only describe as 'read-only' mode: not only is there seemingly no way of removing the common tasks pane, it's also impossible to move any of the icons out of their current position, other than by deleting them, or dragging them into the folders listed in 'Other Places' on the (out-of-place) common task pane. I can still rearrange the icons according to Name, Size, etc, but they're still in fixed positions - although interchangeable - and turning off the 'align to grid' option has had no effect on this.

Screenshot of what happens when I try to move 'Internet Explorer'

Also, the start bar is also occasionally prone to moving around without any prompting. If my dad logs off his account, or even presses 'Switch User', about 50% of the time when he returns to his screen, the start bar is either half-way up the screen, half its usual length, at the top of the screen, or occasionally all of the above. It has been known to happen that there are two start bars - one in the middle of the screen, and one at the top, without him having done anything to warrant this.

I've tried various different FAQs, troubleshooting sites, and spent hours tweaking options and settings myself, but none of them seem to help any of the problems. I've been trying to fix it for months, and I'm basically at the end of my tether, so any advice would be greatly appreciated - thank-you in advance.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/914037.html