rebellious icons
 

Thanks - both problems solved. I hovered the cursor over the clock and the spanner appeared, reminding me of what I did the first time. I downloaded the little programme to keep the icons in place and after re-starting they came back repeatedly in their desired places. So both irritants have gone away.
Many thanks to everyone.
However, your replies raised another highly relevant question. Why do I need icons, anyway? The only ones I ever use are those for Word, Firefox, Spybot and CCleaner. For other chores I tend to type in the relevant address or whatever - and only then realise (sometimes) that I have a shortcut icon. Perhaps I'll get rid of them. Perhaps I need counselling. On the other hand, I once read that counselling is the only fate worse than the death penalty.

You don't, they are only there to save you having to trawl through the program list to launch a program.

I have no icons on my desktop at all, the most used programs are pinned to the task bar and launched from there with a single click.

Individual taste, innit.

Stuff I use all the time lives in the taskbar.

Stuff I use occasionally but often enough to want it there, is on the desktop.

Stuff I use rarely or not at all is just in the Start menu. There's far too much of that - I should clear out, really.

Specifically Win 7

Okay, I'd had enough of not knowing where Explorer was going to take me, so I loaded a copy in my working drive, E.

set, E colon\explorer.exe E colon \This or that folder, /e in its properties, and lo, away it went.

I started several pages of my book, then went back to the Task bar - there was NO list of histories. The old one still works as normal with the dynamic list.

This is handy a lot of the time, but when an item has fallen off the end, it really is a chore to go all the way through the Drive, Folder, (often folder folder folder) then file. Also, I hate using Word processor's Open file seeker. Don't know why, it so tunnel-vision-ish I suppose.

EDIT
Aaaaaaaaaagh! again.:uhoh: Prior to this, if one was to go to the right-hand screen and pick a folder rather than a file, it would say 'Explore' as the top and bold option. Now, it's offering Open - just like the old Explorer. Okay, I'll go back and try the virgin offering. No, it's changed as well. Open and not Explore when pertaining to a folder.

This was a major change in the wording, and quite logical I thought, so I'm (almost) totally sure that I'm not mistaken.





Oddly, my old problem of Word Perfect starting several copies came back when I started using W7. After a few days of deleting them in Task manager, it stopped doing it. Just the same as XP Pro. Very odd.

Now, with the new Explorer.exe running as a book dedicated Explorer, it's started doing it again! So very odd. Anyway, based on past experience, all I've got to do is sit back and wait a few days, and it'll stop doing it.:}

Nowt so queer as computers.

Hi all. My volume control icon next to the clock (toolbar bottom right) has gone for walkies. Anyone know how I can get it back? (Vista)

Ta. :)

Hello BRL,

In XP, I can go to Control Panel, Sounds and Audio Devices and tick the box "Place Volume Icon in Taskbar". Perhaps there is (still) something similar in Vista.

SD

In W7 it's under 'notification area icons' in the control panel, so it's probably the same in Vista.but I'm not certain.

In any version of windows from xp on certainly, it's on right click the task bar, click properties/customize the notification area & check/uncheck as desired.

Thanks guys. Found it under 'Taskbar and Start Menu Properties' in the control panel!!

Cheers :)

That's the back way into the 'notification area icons' in the control panel in W 7. :)